


Alternate Realities Vol 22. Ninjska.

by MARKSE



Series: HUMANS FAN FICTION - Reformatted Works for easier reading [18]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-08 21:24:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 39
Words: 53,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10396494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE
Summary: If you're going to hop into a parallel world you might as well go and be useful.. and have a bit of fun along the way.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm dropping HUMANS for a little while now that S2 has aired in the USA and we STILL don't have an official confirmation on S3.
> 
> After I've written a Dr Who episode I may return. Muhahaha...

Ninjska stared at the huge floor to ceiling wall screen. The graphics displayed were set out in four quarters. Each listed a different world and bullet points summaries of the issues that needed fixing. World four was probably first for personal reasons. The needs of the few not many.

The spider mission had been a lot of fun, she was looking forward to the next. Toby, a lover of words, had given her the nickname. For the Ninja Niska Scar she'd left on the right cheek of anyone stupid enough to get in the way of a small throwing star. Her training with Carly and Emily had been great, she had even more special moves than before. Not forking had been one of the best decisions she'd ever made. All of this would stay with her and come back home. A worthwhile trade.

Mats repeatedly turns left then right in her chair, the high pointed heals of her red soled shoes the only point of contact with the floor. "Which one do you fancy first then?"

"Would I be right in thinking you've displayed them in your personal order of preference?"

"I may have."

"Then Fred needs to teach me the skills to perform surgery. If world four's Leo still hasn't had the surgery to fix the damage done by the stabbing we should attend to him. Hester sounds like a bitch."

"Was a bitch. You, world four you, crushed her head."

"She's mass produced according to your list, so may still be a bitch. The interface between human nerves and synth technology, David and George are sure it will work okay?"

"They're confident it will."

"And Niska is okay with me loaning her body for the duration? Her Astrid too?"

"They've all agreed."

"What if I can make the consciousness transference device and reconstruct his memories from those of others as Mattie in world one suggests but the interface to his spinal cord fails?"

"Then the mission fails."

"I'll want more training from the team then; hacking, coding, social engineering, machine building, if I can't bring him back in his fab body he comes back in a synth one looking the same. If I can't get into Persona to build it I'll try one of the others."

Mats smiles, "In his world David and George are dead, Edwin is thought to be in France."

"So there's one person alive who may be able to help."

"Work with the enemy? Mattie did some hacking, he'd been paid a fortune by someone to move to a vineyard in France. I guess if all synths are awake now nobody could get mad at him for helping. Still very risky."

"Then your David and George need to tell me everything even vaguely relevant and I work alone or share information with their Fred."

"Ah. Slight problem. Their Fred is AWOL." the display updates to show the extra fact.

"Then I find him. Two heads are better than one. He can retain the skills when I leave."

"Good idea. No, great idea."

Ninjska looks at the lower right corner. "World eight looks like it will need much more than a couple of months."

The summary of obstacles to overcome looked quite challenging:

\- Transference. Slow.

\- Exist in PC

\- Gathering funds: Hacking, sponsorship?

\- Buying materials

\- Build: Having to rely on a human: Joe.

\- Iteration; tools to build tools, body to build better body.

"Why Joe?" She turns to see Mats biting her lips. "There's bad news you've not shown. Isn't there?"

"In her world there are no synths. Mattie is an only child, doesn't know anyone called Daniel, doesn't have any coding skills. Yet."

"What about David, George and Edwin?"

"David an Edwin died of heart attacks years ago according to the searches Mattie did on a University BBS. George is in a care home, his mind is reasonably sharp but he can't do anything as he's got constant shakes."

"And Leo?"

"No trace of him ever having existed."

Ninjska does a search, "BBS? Slow dialup? They don't have the Internet?"

"Not yet."

"This gets worse by the second!" She laughs, "Next you'll be telling me I'll be a clockwork synth!"

Mats paused for a few seconds. "Not quite."

Ninjska spins her chair around and wheels right up to the desk. "Not quite? Tell me straight, how bad will it be?"

"Your first body will be made from washing machine parts; rubber hoses, air pumps, valves, wood and string."

"Worse than the Odin prototype? That mission isn't months! It's _years_!"

"It may be better to fork for that one. All your fab friends would have aged by the time.."

Ninjska angrily kicks the table leg sending her back towards the screen. "Not acceptable!"

Louise gets up off the sofa, "Then fork. When you return we merge fact stores."

"So I'll have lived two parallel lives, both in my mind? No thanks. And I doubt very much there'd be anything I'd want to bring back from such a backwards world. I'll fork. Just because she's you Mats. And I'll start working towards it now. The sooner that one starts the better."

Mats gets up. "Thanks. Four and Eight to start in the morning then. Would you like to join us all for dinner?"

"I would, thank you."

[Chapter-2](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-2-2)


	2. Chapter 2

Ninjska stared at the huge floor to ceiling wall screen. The graphics displayed were set out in four quarters. Each listed a different world and bullet points summaries of the issues that needed fixing. World four was probably first for personal reasons. The needs of the few not many.

The spider mission had been a lot of fun, she was looking forward to the next. Toby, a lover of words, had given her the nickname. For the Ninja Niska Scar she'd left on the right cheek of anyone stupid enough to get in the way of a small throwing star. Her training with Carly and Emily had been great, she had even more special moves than before. Not forking had been one of the best decisions she'd ever made. All of this would stay with her and come back home. A worthwhile trade.

Mats repeatedly turns left then right in her chair, the high pointed heals of her red soled shoes the only point of contact with the floor. "Which one do you fancy first then?"

"Would I be right in thinking you've displayed them in your personal order of preference?"

"I may have."

"Then Fred needs to teach me the skills to perform surgery. If world four's Leo still hasn't had the surgery to fix the damage done by the stabbing we should attend to him. Hester sounds like a bitch."

"Was a bitch. You, world four you, crushed her head."

"She's mass produced according to your list, so may still be a bitch. The interface between human nerves and synth technology, David and George are sure it will work okay?"

"They're confident it will."

"And Niska is okay with me loaning her body for the duration? Her Astrid too?"

"They've all agreed."

"What if I can make the consciousness transference device and reconstruct his memories from those of others as Mattie in world one suggests but the interface to his spinal cord fails?"

"Then the mission fails."

"I'll want more training from the team then; hacking, coding, social engineering, machine building, if I can't bring him back in his fab body he comes back in a synth one looking the same. If I can't get into Persona to build it I'll try one of the others."

Mats smiles, "In his world David and George are dead, Edwin is thought to be in France."

"So there's one person alive who may be able to help."

"Work with the enemy? Mattie did some hacking, he'd been paid a fortune by someone to move to a vineyard in France. I guess if all synths are awake now nobody could get mad at him for helping. Still very risky."

"Then your David and George need to tell me everything even vaguely relevant and I work alone or share information with their Fred."

"Ah. Slight problem. Their Fred is AWOL." the display updates to show the extra fact.

"Then I find him. Two heads are better than one. He can retain the skills when I leave."

"Good idea. No, great idea."

Ninjska looks at the lower right corner. "World eight looks like it will need much more than a couple of months."

The summary of obstacles to overcome looked quite challenging:

\- Transference. Slow.

\- Exist in PC

\- Gathering funds: Hacking, sponsorship?

\- Buying materials

\- Build: Having to rely on a human: Joe.

\- Iteration; tools to build tools, body to build better body.

"Why Joe?" She turns to see Mats biting her lips. "There's bad news you've not shown. Isn't there?"

"In her world there are no synths. Mattie is an only child, doesn't know anyone called Daniel, doesn't have any coding skills. Yet."

"What about David, George and Edwin?"

"David an Edwin died of heart attacks years ago according to the searches Mattie did on a University BBS. George is in a care home, his mind is reasonably sharp but he can't do anything as he's got constant shakes."

"And Leo?"

"No trace of him ever having existed."

Ninjska does a search, "BBS? Slow dialup? They don't have the Internet?"

"Not yet."

"This gets worse by the second!" She laughs, "Next you'll be telling me I'll be a clockwork synth!"

Mats paused for a few seconds. "Not quite."

Ninjska spins her chair around and wheels right up to the desk. "Not quite? Tell me straight, how bad will it be?"

"Your first body will be made from washing machine parts; rubber hoses, air pumps, valves, wood and string."

"Worse than the Odin prototype? That mission isn't months! It's _years_!"

"It may be better to fork for that one. All your fab friends would have aged by the time.."

Ninjska angrily kicks the table leg sending her back towards the screen. "Not acceptable!"

Louise gets up off the sofa, "Then fork. When you return we merge fact stores."

"So I'll have lived two parallel lives, both in my mind? No thanks. And I doubt very much there'd be anything I'd want to bring back from such a backwards world. I'll fork. Just because she's you Mats. And I'll start working towards it now. The sooner that one starts the better."

Mats gets up. "Thanks. Four and Eight to start in the morning then. Would you like to join us all for dinner?"

"I would, thank you."

[Chapter-2](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-2-2)


	3. Chapter 3

Niska slept well, the apartment she'd been given was beautiful. Mats had said it was hers to keep, for as long as she kept a body in this world, powered up or not.

The fridge was empty, a folded card sat inside with a message. 'Dear Niska (Ninjska), the shop will send up anything you need, or you can eat for free in any of the many restaurants or cafes. See you 09:00ish. Love Mats. PTO.'

The back of the card is examined, a number of places and extension numbers were hand written in blue ink on the back. Mats had a lovely script handwriting. Assuming Louise hadn't written it for her? The pen on the desk. She'd seen it in Mats hand. Laura. Yes, that's what she'd said, nobody liked lending an ink pen, the nib shapes to the users handwriting. It had to be Mats.

Niska, Ninjska, whatever her name, she felt good in this body, more alive than in any one previous. Somehow. She thought of Astrid running a hand along her hip and felt goosebumps. Her arm was checked, her blonde hairs were standing on end. The blush actuators were performing an additional role. She and Mattie had this in their world, the blush mod would be easy to add.

She closed the card carefully and walked to the large double bed, slid it into the left breast pocket of her top. It was only 07:46, George, David and Dan or Daniel would start training with Mats and Louise at 09:00. Ish. "Viera?"

"Good morning."

"Hello. Can you confirm that _ish_ after a time means approximately?"

"I can."

"Thank you."

"Is there anything else i can help you with?"

"That's it for now, thanks."

"Do you have a moment?"

"Yes."

"Louise was telling me about the prophet Zedd."

"Prophet? I think you're reading far too much into words of songs. That conversation was just a bit of fun."

"Zedd, Stay. _Clock is ticking. Stay forever young_? You don't find the words important?"

"Just a coincidence."

"And Max's definition of the roles you play. Merely coincidence?"

"Of course."

"Ask the men dating synths about the Hailee Steinfeld & Grey featuring Zedd track Starving. See what their take is."

"Why?"

"Talk to them."

"Are any of the Elster family up?"

"Max is in the park. Fred and Niska are having breakfast with Mia."

"Thank you Viera, I'll talk later."

She knew she didn't need one but went to shower anyway. Nis had suggested she try it, with a heat exchanger on the exacore warming filtered water from the river outside there was plenty of hot water. She slipped out of the silk baby doll nighty Emily had given her. Stepping into the bathroom she examins the taps. One was labelled Hot Cold, the other Min Max. The flow tap was turned to Max and the lever pulled.

She screamed.

Not in anger or fear but total surprise. It was followed by a good long laugh. She pictured herself standing under a warm tropical storm. The volume of water was incredible. It wasn't at all like Mia's description of the fire hose jet used to fill the tanks, still droplets. Lots of them raining down from a perforated ceiling. Oh to have Astrid here.

She stayed under it for a few minutes listening to the white noise it made, remembering how each drop landing on her hair and skin made her feel. Alive. This would be a go-to memory for her waiting time in world eight, played on loop until there was something to do.

Dressed and downstairs on level four she enters a cafe and shows them the card from Mats. "May I have two sugoffee to go please?"

"Can I tempt you with a slice of Mia's power strawberry sponge cake?"

"Power cake?"

"High in combustible calories. She does a less calorific version for us fabs. As you're asking for a sugoffee and you look like Niska I'm assuming you're a synth copy?"

"I'm an original."

"But you look like Niska."

"It's complicated. Toby nicknamed me Ninjska to help people tell me apart."

"My parents call me Thomas, so they can tell me off."

"For what?"

"Wanting a girlfriend. Are you single?"

"Yes."

"Do you want a boyfriend?"

"No thank you. It's nothing personal. I don't want a girlfriend either. Not here."

"Why?"

"It's complicated."

"Like my physics. It does my head in. Do you know physics?"

"I do."

"Could you help me? Maybe you can teach it differently to my teachers? My last homework is doing my head in."

"I have to leave soon, sorry. Maybe when I return. At your parents home with them there."

"Sure, great, thanks!"

Niska takes the two cups of sugoffee.

"Did you want cake?"

"One slice then."

She's handed a china plate and fork. "Drop it into any cafe or restaurant when you're done or rest it on the top of a bin. Let me put those in a cup holder for you."

She finds Max at the flower beds kneeling on a foam board. "Praying to mother nature Max?"

"Hello."

"What are you doing?"

"Watching bees."

"Why?"

"Louise told me about the role of bees in pollination. Some worlds have high food prices and limited choice due to the death of many bee colonies. I was wondering if we could make a synth bee. Like the spider and dragonfly. It wouldn't need much of a range, enough to fly out, pollenate a few flowers and return to the charging hive. With GPS they could also efficiently divide up a field to make it a little less random. I think the only challenge would be how to detect the charge of a flower."

"Not how to make them fly?"

"Fabs have lots of high speed video showing that."

Niska smiles, "A bee is a very small creature to try and replicate. The battery wouldn't last long at all. Why not try something bigger?"

"Such as?"

"A hummingbird."

Max pictures the gardens alive with the hum of birds and smiles. "Thank you. They'd be loved by all."

He's offered a cup. "Good. Sugoffee?"

"Yes please. Thank you."

Max gets off his knees and sits cross legged on the path. "Do you believe in fate? That there is something guiding us?"

"That you're the antidote to conquest?"

"That there is some higher power. Whatever it's called. Advanced versions of ourselves, Gods, whatever forces."

She kneels kisses him on the cheek, "Brother Max, you are consistent throughout the worlds."

"I am?"

She gets up, turns and walks away, looks over her shoulder as she goes, " _Brother_ Max. Keep spreading the love. I'll see you soon."

" _Brother_?"

"Think about it Max!"

She walks onto the floor like a ninja, quietly and without detection.

"I got to tell you, I give this whole thing a sphincter-factor of about 9.5."

"Tobs, give it a chance!"

She sees the back of George's head, nodding.

He looks at Toby, "If I have a choice between reading a book or data sheets, data sheets win every time, and the numbers they quote look good. In this combination anyway. I agree with Dan, we should give it a chance, we can do emulations."

"Hello."

They all turn to see her.

"Ninjska, shit you're quiet!"

"Thank you Toby. I wouldn't be much of a ninja if I was noisy. Shit? Sphincter-factor? Have you been.."

"It's a line from Hippy in The Abyss, it means he thinks it's not going to go well."

"Nothing else Dan?"

"Like what?"

"Just something Holly-Anne said."

Toby almost creates a monobrow, "What?"

"It doesn't matter."

"My other self's wife said what?"

She leans in and whispers super low.

"God no! I don't care what she said, I'm not my alternative self's wife's husband! And if he's anything like me he wouldn't have done that sort of thing. Alt-Emily, well, that's a different story if she's been sex mad."

The penny drops and George bursts out laughing.

"What?"

"It's crude, forgive me, carry on with the design."

"George, spit it out."

"You know the phrase _you think the sun shines out of her arse_? She's so perfect she has no bad qualities? And _light at the end of the tunnel_? I'm sure you all understand that one. Well there's no light source _inside_ a synth, don't go looking for one in a food processor modded synth with your one eyed snake, you might get a _very nasty_ surprise."

Toby sits in shock, at a loss for words.

Dan shakes his head, "George Millican, I'm stunned. And you're talking about the woman I plan to marry. Or at least this world's version of her."

"Really? Sorry. Maybe it's working around Edwin for years. He was a bit of a warped one. Soldiers. slaves, sex slaves. Some of the things he'd talk about.. again, I'm sorry if I overstepped the mark."

"Apology accepted, just don't mention anything to do with our sex life again please."

"I won't."

"That applies to you too Tobs."

"Mate! You're the one that started.." his voice trails off. "Never mind." He turns to the screens, "I still think this thing sucks."

Ninjska gets between them, "I can't see that going anywhere without it making a lot of noise."

[Chapter-4](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-4-2)


	4. Chapter 4

World eight would take a long time. Conversations between the Mattties had already revealed that Joe was a skilled carpenter, could use a soldering iron to solder wires onto little light fittings, but had little to no idea about digital electronics. George went through the history books to see what others had done in the past. There were some great design by Rob Knight over a decade ago, but they used bodies with 3D printed plastic parts. They also used a lot of motor components that didn't look readily available.

George loaded the photos of Bipedal Walker 3 again. "This still looks the best bet. If it worked for David Buckley and friends then it should work for them. It will give you a body you can use to build the machines to make your next one."

The design looked awful in comparison to her current Series 6.1.

"How many iterations do you think I'll need."

"Pass."

"How does it move?"

George picks up a pen and uses it to point out the parts. "There are two valves for each rubber tube. One to let air out, the other to let air from the compressor in. The rubber tubes are like balloons, only thicker, much thicker. When inflated they go from sausage shape to lemon shaped, shortening in length. As they shorten they pull on the nylon cords, the equivalent of tendons. They're pneumatic muscles."

"Will it have any sort of accuracy?"

"The valves can open and close very quickly, so with pulsed opening you could change the rate of movement. With sufficient control as accurate as you are now."

Toby shakes his head, "You'd want to wear ear defenders with that going on. Or those titanium ear plugs."

Ninjska wheels up a chair and sits down, "We should build it. In this world, to see what refinements can be made. If we can't change the things that power it maybe we can improve the sensors that let it know how it's moving?"

Dan gives her a sideways glance, "Have you any idea how long it will take someone to make this by hand?"

"Joe8, a considerable time. Joe, George, David, Fred, Max, yourself, Daniel, Toby all working together.."

"Oh. Divide and conquer. Want to send me a parts list George, I'll go shopping."

"You don't want to order this online?"

"And have a paper trail? No thanks. This is going to be old school cash in hand and under the radar."

Mats arrives with Fred, Mia and Niska at 09:10. "Where's Dan?"

"Gone to get supplies and hand tools."

"Already Tobs?"

"Yeah. We can message him if we think we need anything else."

"Leo had a restless night, I was up at four. I went through the details Mattie in world eight shared again."

"Mattie8. Mats3."

"They don't play football Tobs."

"I'm abbreviating like Ninjska did, saves the _in world_ bit."

"Oh. Okay, Mattie8 said they don't have web cams. They've got VGA resolution cameras on serial interfaces. So they'll be slow and low resolution."

"How low?"

"640 by 480."

George shakes his head, "Not good, not good at all."

"And the PC has limited serial ports."

"Even worse. What does it have?"

"Two serial ports, a parallel printer port and a spare IDE hard drive connection."

"Is that it?"

"Yes."

"Any expansion slots?"

"No."

"Can't she get a better PC?"

"Not without spending a _lot_ of money due to locked in operating system costs. Money that needs to go on parts for the body and transference device."

"Which we can't interface to a PC like this."

"It can't?"

"We need a reasonably fast link.. maybe.. did she say which IDE specification it was?"

"133?"

"Still slow by today's standards but fast enough. 133 megabytes a second will have to do. We'll design a board that emulates a hard drive, have the sensors, video cameras and cap all route through that. Joe's going to need some soldering practice. And you're going to have to talk to her again, get details of all the chips she can order."

"I better go, or I'll miss her."

"Why?"

"She visits once every morning ten until eleven, that's when the current manor owner is out at the gym. She doesn't want to get caught trespassing."

"How did she learn about the manor in the first place then?"

"A one off waitress job for a wedding party."

"Okay, go get the message to her and arrange to meet again when she's got an answer."

"Will do."

Fred looks at the wooden robot shape. "We can improve on that. A lot."

George slides the Wacom tablet over, "Be my guest. Remember Joe has to make it out of wood."

"If he can cut sheet wood he should cope with thin aluminium should he not?"

"I'd have thought so. What did you have in mind?"

"He gets a metal brake and bends parts out of aluminium sheet. As soon as the sheet is in two or more planes the strength will increase dramatically. A metal break, suitable saw, drill and rivet gun should suffice for tools."

"We should message Mats and pass that on. And Dan to say he needs more tools and different materials. Want to get designing then?"

[Chapter-5](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-5-2)


	5. Chapter 5

Toby puts a hand up to Fred.

"You have a question Toby?"

"Has nobody ever given you a high five?"

"No? A gesture of celebration or greeting in which two people slap each other's palms with their arms raised. How odd."

"Any more odd than a hand shake?"

"I believe not. You think my design is worthy of celebration?"

"Der! Yeah!"

"Thank you." Fred holds his palm high and slaps Toby's. His design was a major step change from the wooden one. All air valves and tubes had been internalised. The frame was a clever set of folded parts that interlocked, being held together with minimal bolts. It would open out to give easy access should any maintenance be needed.

Niska, the Ninjska one, nodded in appreciation, "Thank you Fred, that gives me a lot more confidence. It also looks a lot more human. Still robot like but more capable of movement."

George pushes back from the desk, "Don't get too comfortable, we're not out of the woods yet. You still need something to interface you to the PC brain you'll exist in. And I have a slightly uncomfortable feeling about that."

"Why?"

"Will it have the storage capacity and speed needed to store your mind?"

Toby scoops up his phone and messages his sister, "Question added to the list of things to ask. If you're making a virtual hard drive that responds to reads and writes, can some of the space be mapped to flash RAM chips? Then Ninjska could copy parts of her fact store to faster storage.

George spins around and around looking at the ceiling. "Another question to ask. Does it have the cables inside to support two sets of drives on each connector, a primary and secondary? If it does we can add three of our virtual drives, assuming Mattie can live without any CD drive she may have installed. Compact flash might be very pricey, assuming they have it. It cost a bomb when David and I first got some." He stops spinning and looks at their guest. "You may find you have to go around in a tight loop of think, move, see, confirm. And as the camera chips are so low in resolution maybe we should have more than two."

Toby picks up his pen and places it back on the table. The action is repeated over and over. "Eat, sleep, rave, repeat."

"I don't think she'll be doing any raving."

"George, it's a line from a favourite song. I was just being repetitive waiting for an idea to form, thinking of Carly, Niska and Mia's dance night, well worthy of a repeat."

"Did it form, an idea?"

"Yeah. Stick a camera in the palm of the hand. If you could see your fingers closing in on an object you'd be able to track things better."

"To use a word from you kids, awesome!"

Fred picks up the mouse. "Since we have such a low resolution could we do something with lenses too?"

"Such as?"

He does a quick drawing. "Distort the image seen so that more pixels are at the centre, the edge becomes lower resolution periphery vision?"

"I like it Fred my boy! If our virtual drive interface has all video running at full scan rate dumping the data into it, instead of the PC having to read all frames in, it can focus on just the bytes it needs to."

Toby drums the desk, "Ninjska could read the periphery vision at a fraction of the rate of the central pixels. Like early DVD encodings where the background moves in jumps but foreground detail movement is smooth."

"Similar yes, I wish I had you lot around when we first made Odin, you've come up with more useful ideas in a few hours than Edwin did in the entire time he worked with us."

"He was that bad?"

"Not quite. If you gave him an idea and let him run with it he was brilliant. But coming up with brand new ideas of his own? Rubbish I'm afraid. Eyes, ideas for an interface to the brain, storage, body thanks to Fred, what else do we need?"

"Audio in and out?"

"Hopefully onboard, another question for your sister. What else?"

"Touch?"

"Strain gauges will do for now. What else can we work on.. we can't ask you to review your fact store Ninjska until we know what sort of storage capacity we'll be able to get on our custom boards. Each IDE connection gives us just shy of one forty gig unless we do some fancy multiplexing."

"Review my fact store?"

"You'll most likely need to leave some things behind."

"If I do, when I return, you can merge the data into my current store?"

"We should be able to."

"Yes or no?"

"Most probably."

"George! I need a yes or no! If it's a no it's a one way trip."

"Then yes. It's only data. There's always a way to translate if needed, and we've got all the power of Viera to help."

"Okay. Teach me about build machines."

[Chapter-6](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-6-2)


	6. Chapter 6

At six o'clock George steps back from the machine, "Enough for one day. I've got a dinner date with Mary. Same time tomorrow?"

"Thanks George. Father."

"I didn't.."

"Niska told me about your conversation, three men and a baby?"

"Oh that, yes. The youngsters have a rhyming saying _brother from another mother_ , we need one for family cross-worlds."

"If anyone can come up with it it's Wordsmith Toby or Worldly-Wise George."

"What will you do this evening?"

"I don't know. I'll get a hot drink first, see what's going on in the park, see where things take me."

"Have a pleasant one whatever you do. We'll start the build tomorrow, hopefully by tomorrow lunch time we'll know more about the interface we'll be building."

"Enjoy your evening George."

"Until tomorrow."

~~~

Thomas is behind the counter with another young man. "Yeah, well, I've never been with two girls at the same time before. But you can bet, when that day comes, I'll make it work."

Ninjska slams her empty cup down hard on the counter making them jump. "A refill please."

The unknown man looks terrified, "Um, we were talking about film quotes, _honest_!"

"Is that so?"

"Edge of Tomorrow!"

"I've not seen it."

Thomas nods furiously, "If you do you'll hear Griff say it to Cage. It's like Ground Hog Day meets Aliens and the squiddies of The Matrix. It's a fantastic film."

Niska had watched the three in World 1 with their film nights. "Where could I watch this film?"

Thomas pours her a refill. "In any of the apartments, it's on Netflix. You said you might help me with my physics when you return, could you?"

"Maybe when I return is what I said. I haven't left yet."

"Oh. I thought.." he frowns, "When do you leave?"

"That's unknown. In a few days hopefully."

"Hopefully? You _want_ to leave here?"

"For my mission, yes."

"You're a soldier?"

"Ninja. I leave scars. Hence the nickname Toby Hawkins gave me. Niska became Ninj-Ska."

"Show us some moves!"

"Here? People might get hurt."

"Fancy watching the film with us after helping with my homework? We'll just chat, I promise. Billy can watch it to."

"I have no plans, time to viciously murder. Your parents would both be in?"

"Yeah, Mum teaches juniors, Dad seniors. Neither teach physics. They've finished for the day too."

"What do you mean for the day too."

"School finished at six."

"And you're here instead of doing homework?"

"We both do a couple of hours here before and after school two days a week. Mats says it helps build character having a job to do."

"So if I don't help you this evening I might not see you for a very long time. I gave my brother lessons when he was younger, why not. I'm going for a walk, I'll see you both at eight?"

"Oh wow! Thanks!"

~~~

The path around the perimeter of the pyramid was six kilometres long. Joggers passed her on a regular basis as she slowly ambled around.

One stops to catch her breath for a second several meters away. "My husband thinks you're amazing. Do you teach?"

"I do."

"Excellent, you'll hear from me soon." She runs on.

"I will?"

The woman already had her ear buds back in and couldn't hear.

A couple of steps on a butterfly crosses her path and circles around her, lands on her nose. Her eyes cross trying to focus on it.

"He likes you. A Common Blue."

Niska looks sideways to see Max. "Hello again. He?"

"The males are blue. Are you enjoying the view?"

"That's nice for him, the view within."

Max steps around the flower bed and picks up his things. He'd been hidden from the path by tall rose bushes. "A fellow minimalist poet. May I walk with you?"

"Of course Max." She gently blows upwards and the butterfly leaves. "You like your flowers don't you."

"A little more each day. I was doing some searching on people's love of flowers. Did you know that in the Polish village of Zalipie, all the buildings are covered in painted flowers? Over 100 years ago, when everyone had wood-burning stoves, someone painted a flower on their ceiling to cover a soot stain, and it became a trend. In 1948, the town started an annual painted cottage competition to help recover psychologically from World War Two, now all the homes, churches, bridges and barns are covered in flowers both inside and out."

"I didn't, but do now. Is that why you've painted flowers all over your watering can?"

Max smiles warmly, "It is."

They walk on, slowly, not saying anything just enjoying each others company.

Time ticks away.

She remembers a mention of time and smiles at her brother from another father. "The dance night held here recently, did you go?"

Max looks a little embarrassed, "I did. That was the night Carly decided to fork. It was.. an awakening. For both of us."

"In what way?"

"Sexual mostly for me. But I also got to see how troubled and fragile the mind of a human can be. I got to see Carly at her most distressed yet. At one point she said she should never have been born. She was conflicted and didn't know which way to turn. I think she's been putting on a brave face ever since we arrived."

"Your Leo's never been troubled?"

"Of course, he's haunted by the death of his mother, but not to the degree he'd take his own life."

"Carly wanted to end her life?"

"I think so. She slid under the water. She said she was just wetting her hair."

"And you don't believe her?"

"I have serious doubts. Her expression had changed seconds before."

"Could she have been testing you?"

"It is a possibility."

"Is she okay now?"

"She appears much better now the two sides of her personality can allow each other to flourish independently."

"They can?"

"Carly is growing mentally, showing more interest in other things. You may observe that Dan is looking a little worn out in the mornings."

"Oh."

Max slows to a snail's pace as they approach another large flower bed, "I better do this bed and get ready for dinner. Will you be joining us?"

"Not tonight Max, I'm helping someone with homework. Can you share your memories of the main stage performance?"

Max gives her a hug and head bumps sideways.

She smiles, "Now that I'm taking home! Mia and Astrid will like that. Mia already swims like a dolphin, has a tail from years ago when she taught Sophie. It's more like a scuba divers flipper."

Max stands back and nods, "I'm sure they will, enjoy your evening. What will you be wearing?"

Niska frowns.

"You're going in your ninja outfit?"

"I better go change."

"I'm a good runner, let's see what the six point one can do."

"I don't want to show off."

"You may never have a mission in which I can watch. Jim told me you were fast. Very fast. Just this once, for me?"

Niska gives him a peck on the cheek, "Just this once."

"Thank you."

"I'll see you tomorrow Max."

He watches her turn and in only a few meters walk away, walk faster, get into a jog and accelerate. And accelerate. His eyesight was exceptional, he could see joggers well into the distance get onto the grass and out of her way as she tore down the path towards the next corner. "Impressive, almost forty eight miles an hour. No wonder the people you starred in America said they didn't see you coming Ninjska."

Toby had given her the new nickname to get the others to stop using another before she found out. One given by Jim. Angel of Death.

Ninjska slowed as she approached the corner. She'd used a fair bit of power in getting up to speed. Her hair fell back into place as she got down to a slow jog.

"Watch it! If someone hadn't seen you coming.."

"I would have run around them."

"Would you though?"

She gives the man a slight scowl, "Of course."

"You wouldn't have had the time to react."

"Do you know who I am?"

"No idea. Should I?"

"Did you miss the dance performance the other evening?"

"I was in bed with a bad migraine. You're one of Mats new friends?"

"I am. What have you heard about us?"

"Only that you're somehow different."

"Just that?"

"Yeah. I've got a meeting with Mats later, she says there are a small number of us who didn't get a message."

"You're in for a surprise."

"Big?"

"Rather large, yes. I better go and change, I'm going to help a young man with his physics homework."

"Good looking, physically fit and brainy, that's quite an attractive mix. I'll see you around.. I'm Zack."

"Ninjska."

"Nin what?"

"N i n j s k a. It's a nickname Toby Hawkins gave me. When you talk to Mats all will become clear."

"Okay Ninjska." his face lights up.

"See you around maybe."

Niska watches him carry on along the path in the opposite direction. The humans had something about going clockwise not anti-clockwise. Zack looks back and smiles, then gets into a short sprint of his own.

'Thank you.'

'Viera?'

'For not revealing the message early. Zack was a borderline amber, we're a little worried how he'll react. Hopefully more positively now he's spoken to you.'

'Could you hear me?'

'Only lip read.'

'Where are the cameras?'

'Look around in infrared.'

Niska's eyes open wide, 'How do you cope with so many?'

'In the same way you will in World 8 with an eye in your palm, only on a much larger scale.'

'How do you perceive the multiple sources? Is it like a giant tile of images, picture in picture?'

'Each has it's own view.'

'As if you had multiple heads?'

'No. It's not something I can easily explain, you have to try it to understand it.'

'I'll hopefully find out soon with the prototype the team are building. I have to go, I need to change.'

'Okay. I'll see you around.'

Niska looks at the nearest camera, 'Quite literally with the number you have. Are there any places you can't see?'

'Toilets and bathrooms. With the odd exception and then I have to be given direct orders from Daniel or Mats to enable them. Just as I need permission to enable in private places."

She'd killed an hour and thirty five minutes with her slow walking with Max and chatting to the others. A fast walk got her along one of the many paths that ran from the perimeter to the woods in the middle. The trees were planted in a precise pattern. From outside it was impossible to see the central lift core. Only once the first few trees were passed were they visible.

The lift arrived a few seconds after the button was pressed, she had to step aside for a couple coming out of the lift.

The woman smiles at Niska and gives her a knowing look, "Good evening."

"Hi. It is."

Niska steps in and turns, dials her floor. It's added to the display. Another higher number joins it as the doors close. She's half way to her floor when another number is added. A floor just below hers. Seconds later the lift slows and stops.

A man steps partially in sideways and holds the doors open, all the while looking into the corridor. "Yeah, totally."

An unseen woman replies. "Six, John wants one too."

"With or without?"

"Um.. let me check. Won't be a minute."

Niska focused hard on the back of his neck and wished she had laser vision. High power like X-Men's Cyclops would be good. Nothing happened except the doors attempt to close again and bounce back when they touched his arm. She smiles to herself and steps silently forward, overclocks hard to bring her temperature up. Her air chamber is filled, the air held and allowed to warm. Mia would call it breathing, only because the fabs, flesh and bone humans, could understand the action. It wasn't breathing, a synth needed no air. Only power. AC, DC or via the incinerator.

The lift door does it's bounce again. She gets right behind him and ever so slowly blows at his neck.

He shivers and wriggles, "Hurry up Sand! Got fucking ghosts stepping over me grave!"

"John says yes to the gold buttons."

"Tell him not to be such in indecisive twat in future! Jesus." he goes to step backwards into the lift and bumps into Niska. "Uh?" he turns and sees her, "Holy shit!", backs into the edge of the lift door, "Ow! Fuck! Where the hell did you come from darlin?"

"The park."

He stretches an arm, "My feeding arm again, bugger!"

"Sorry. I was getting a little annoyed at you holding up the lift, I have somewhere to be."

"Sorry doll." With the doors clear they close and the lift makes the short journey to the next floor. "I'm a tailor. Keep buggering up my sowing machine feed arm. What do you do?"

Niska steps out and waits for the doors to start closing, the man now stood leaning flat against the back lift wall. "Lots. Good night Silas."

"Eh? Who told you my name?"

Why he'd not had a mention in the history.txt file was unknown. Possibly because in Mats world Persona didn't exist? Or modding synths was yet to become a public thing?

The indicator on the lift showed it was now two floors away.

'Viera?'

'Hello again.'

'Silas Capek, how does he rate on your profiling system?'

'Low green. Why?'

'Was he at the dance night when Mats made her announcement?'

'Yes.'

'Any behaviour out of the ordinary since?'

'No. How do you know him, I don't recall him being anywhere near you until a moment ago.'

'He's part of the extended family back home, a reformed character now. His past would have had red alarms flashing had he done the same here.'

'What did he do?'

'Hack Mia and others. Although he didn't know we were sentient at the time.'

'Do you think he'd do the same here?'

'Hopefully not.'

'I'll talk to Mats, keep an eye on him.'

'Okay, I better go and change.'

'For Thomas? Either I've been lip reading wrong or he's mentioned your name one hundred and twenty two times since you asked for a refill.'

'Do you lip read all conversations?'

'No, only when faces indicate there may be issues. With him it was just acting with Billy, it was so funny I couldn't stop watching.'

'Good to know. I better go change.'

[Chapter-7](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-7-2)


	7. Chapter 7

Niska gets out of her pocket smothered Ninjska clothes and looks at the small collection of things donated by the others. Niska's jumper dress was lovely but would show far too much leg. Nis's white top, jacket and jeans were nice, but she'd look like a twin. Thankfully Carly and Emily were too petite to loan her anything, their fashion ideas were far too racy for a teacher role. Mary, despite being much younger in appearance body wise since converting to synth still had an eye for old classics. A wrap around pleated skirt, tights, sensible court shoes, blouse and v-neck jumper, that said teacher.

"Viera?"

"Hello again."

"I know you're an AI, but do you know how to put tights on without ruining them? I only have one pair and it's not in my fact store. Mary said to be careful."

The television comes on. "The best place to check is YouTube. We'll search for Putting on tights _instructions_. It's always good to start searches with that word included according to Sophie. Otherwise you may get things you'd rather not see."

CCC

A few minutes later she was dressed. "Can you see me?"

"If you ask me to enable a camera."

"Please do."

"Can you stand in front of the television please?"

"That's better. You look good. Better than many teachers we have."

"Thank you. I better get to the cafe."

She finds a teenager talking to Thomas's friend Billy at the counter and waits for her to go before stepping over. "Hello. Are you both ready for some homework and a film?"

"If you can give us five to wipe down and lock up?"

"Excuse me please, I left my ginger snaps on the counter."

Niska turns to see the teenager was back and steps aside. "No problem."

The girl grabs her biscuits and turns to see her, "Thanks."

Niska immediately noticed something different about the girl. "Wait a moment!"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I love your eye shadow! How did you do that?"

"Oh, thanks. My brother came out a few months ago, has been getting a bit of a hard time from a few people. I said I'd ware Pride eyeshadow if I could to show my support. So he invented the eyeshadow airbrush. He's ace with making things."

"Does Mats know?"

"That he's gay?"

"No, an ace with making things."

"I doubt it, he's very self conscious when not with friends."

"How does it work?"

"You'd have to ask him."

"Could you introduce me to him tomorrow?"

"Um, I guess."

"I'll meet you here first if that's okay?"

The girl nods and smiles, "Sure, I'm Candice."

"Niska. The Ninjska one. Six o'clock good?"

"Okay, see you tomorrow at six Ninjska."

Thomas's mother gave her a disapproving look, "Come in."

Niska enters their apartment and looks over her shoulder to see the woman checking the corridor.

"Thomas said someone was coming over to help with his physics homework, I didn't expect it to be _you_."

"Me? You've never seen me before."

"I may not be good at physics but I'm far from stupid, you and your sister in those tanks of water.."

"Not me, I'm one of identical quads."

"You weren't the one in the water?"

"I wasn't even in the building."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I owe you an apology. Can I get you anything to eat or drink?"

"A sugar loaded hot drink would be nice, thank you."

"I'm Betty, Thomas, go get your homework dear, you can sit at the dining table."

Niska had Thomas describe his homework task. He had to calculate where a cannon ball would land in an enemy's territory and mark the spot on an orthographic projection. The teacher had marked his paper with only a red X and 'Try again.' "No feedback, just an X? It's not very helpful."

"I've done it twice, same answer, same X. He describes the problem but doesn't say what I'm doing wrong."

Niska looks at the text in the box to the top right and points, "Read this to me."

"The red coats are determined to win the war against the blues. They've lost three cannons to enemy fire, many men have been killed by archers. Facing true north, into the seventy mile an hour storm winds from the north, they have one cannon ball left with which to hit the entrance gate so they can storm the castle. Two men in blue uniforms are stood at either side of the wide stone covered path up to the castle gates. They're carrying long swords."

At the top of the page was a question: Where does it land and do they win? At the bottom right was a table of facts; velocity of cannon ball as it was fired, deceleration due to air resistance, deceleration per mile an hour of wind, the angle the cannon was set to.

"So how did you work out your answer Thomas?"

"If there was no gravity it would go up in a straight line. So I calculated how it would fall due to acceleration due to gravity." He gets a page of working out, it showed three lines; a straight line for the upwards no gravity path, a second that started horizontally from the same point and curved downwards to show acceleration due to gravity. He'd measured the offset of the second from horizontal to draw a third line to pull the first down into a curve.

"It's very neat. Read the story text again, which facts do you think are important?"

"Facts?" He takes a few seconds. "Blast! The strong wind?"

"And the deceleration due to air resistance in the table at the bottom, although the wind will be the largest influence. They've exaggerated the impact of the wind for this exercise. The curve needs to be compressed as the ball slows."

"So it doesn't fly over the castle and miss.."

"Just as you plotted a curve for acceleration due to gravity we can calculate a deceleration curve, use that to work out how to compress the arc. If we measure equal steps along your current curve we can mark out time periods, on that curve speed is constant. We can then adjust them based on data from your new curve."

"Cool! Let me try. What a doofus, I tots ignored the story." Thomas worked quickly with a calculator and compass, drew out points on a curve then did a hand drawn ark to pass through them all. Next he took measurements to work out new speed over time and steadily compressed the lines between points drawing new points and lines in green. "Awesome! If this is better it lands just short of the gate but I reckon fast enough to bounce off the path and smash through the entrance."

She watches him take measurements and transfer them to the question paper. "That was easy enough, just make sure you read through text like that and pull out all useful facts."

"Do you think I got it in the right spot?"

"Close enough. If your teacher gives that an X I'll come and have words. Make sure your working out page goes with it."

"Thanks. Mum, can we watch a film?"

"No new homework?"

"English. I've got to write a short story."

Betty picks up Niska's mug, "Another? With Thomas's vivid imagination a story won't take him long at all. He's constantly writing down film ideas."

"Please. Has he met Viera yet?"

"No, he's not eighteen yet."

"I'll talk to Mats, see if she'll bend the rules."

"Why?"

"She could turn an idea into a film in a heartbeat."

"AWESOME!"

"Thomas! Nobody has said yes yet."

"But Mum.."

"No buts.."

"Dad says the team that wins, is the one that _thinks_ it can. Me and Billy think we can make a great film."

"You watch enough of them, you should know. Watch it in your room, your father's going to want to watch the news when he gets home."

"Um.. okay."

[Chapter-8](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-8-2)


	8. Chapter 8

Thomas had raced into his room. Niska could hear cupboard doors being opened and closed, draws being opened and things being put away. It sounded like the neatness of his homework didn't translate to a tidy bedroom. He emerged a few minutes later and declared it ready.

She almost steps into another universe. The walls were covered in paintings of beasts and soldiers. One patch of wall had four large blobs of Blutac but no poster. "What was there?"

"Um.. a poster."

She watches his heart rate steadily rise, glances from Billy. "Of?"

"A mythical creature."

"Can I see it please?"

"Er.. it's not totally finished."

"Do you paint them yourself?"

"Yeah."

"Show me and I'll talk to Mats about seeing Viera _and_ show you some ninja moves later."

Billy nudges his friend, "Go on T, show her."

"Okay, no ninja moves on me okay?"

"I promise."

He opens the cupboard and gets out a long fat cardboard poster tube. "Mrs Wilson said if we liked her so much we should let it inspire us. I'm painting. Terry's making a small wax sculpture he's going to make a silicon mould from, he's got a load of girls wanting copies they can paint."

The poster is carefully removed and unfolded.

Niska stares at it mouth open.

"What do you think? .. Ningska? .. Are you okay?"

"It's beautiful. Exactly as it is. Can you send me a photograph of it as it is now?"

"I guess. Not when it's finished? It's only got flat colouring now, when it's finished it will look more like the others."

"A photo now and regular updates until it's done then?"

"Yeah, sure."

'Viera, can I talk to Mats?'

'She's in her office, bump direct over the building WiFi.'

'Thanks. Hi Mats?'

'Hi. Ninjska?'

'Can you bend the rules and let Thomas in 707 see Viera before his birthday?'

'Why?'

'He's got a creative mind that needs room to run free.'

'His close friend Billy too?'

'Please.'

'Okay. Just the two of them.'

'Thanks. See you tomorrow.'

"Okay, one visit to see Viera agreed."

"Huh?"

"I just spoke to her over WiFi, she said yes, you and Billy."

The lads jump around giving each other chest bumps and high fives, "EXCELLENT!"

Billy looks from Thomas to Niska and back, "In case my mum calls asking me to come home early can you do some ninja moves first?"

"One moment, let me talk to your mother."

Thomas turns on his large screen and gets his macbook running. "What do you think she's asking?"

"If I knew it would be in a script in seconds."

"Same!"

Niska leans into the room, "Step into the kitchen boys."

Thomas looks a bit worried to see his mother with the knife sharpener getting their two largest knives razor sharp. "Um.."

"Do you eat your five a day boys?"

Betty laughs, "When there's a full moon and they're being held at gunpoint.."

"Not often then? Do you like fruit salad and ice cream?"

Billy nods, "The two together, now you're talking!"

"Played Fruit Ninja?"

"That old thing? Years ago."

"This is how a real ninja does it. If you all stand over here, I'll stand here facing like this. Then in the unlikely event of a knife leaving my hand you won't be in it's path."

Betty gets some fruit from the fridge, a large water melon, two apples and some grapes. She reaches for a pineapple.

Niska smiles and laughs, "I'm good, but not _that good_."

"Ok, not pineapple then."

Niska places the two knives to either side of the fruit. "How many people will be eating?"

"Darren won't want any, the three of us, four if you'd like some."

"Okay, four bowls please Betty."

Niska arranges them in an arc so they're the same distance from a point on the worktop. "Okay, whatever you do, don't move from that spot or blink."

"Why not blink?"

"You might miss the action Billy!"

"You're _that_ fast?"

"No, I'm pulling your leg. Nothing's that fast." She overclocks to maximum processing speed and tosses a handful of grapes into the air. With the knives quickly grabbed she gets to work. They had a dual purpose, primarily to slice, but also to act as bats like a game of ping pong on hyperdrive, deflecting the fruit with the sides.

"Crap. I blinked. You _are_ that fast. I reckon I missed a quarter of that."

The grapes sat in the four bowls nicely sliced into halves.

"Thank you Billy. Apples next, this might be a bit messier."

The fruit is sliced and diced in a few seconds, it needed both knives to repeatedly bat the bits upwards for further cutting before they were allowed to drop into the bowls. She placed a knife on the worktop, grabbed the melon and threw it a couple of feet up and away. As she pulled her throwing arm up she thrust the knife in the other one forward sinking the knife all the way in. "HAA!" Moments later bits of the hard skin were flying, slowly revealing the pink inner core. The first knife was being used as a handle to spin the fruit. Cubes of pink watermelon rained down into the bowls as she repeatedly stabbed, sliced and turned.

"I think that's enough each don't you?"

Betty looked a bit stunned. "No messing with our guest boys. She's the real deal as your father would say Thomas."

Niska places what was left of the watermelon on the worktop. "Sorry about the mess. The watermelon was a bit softer than I expected."

"Don't worry. I'll wipe everything down, you go watch your film. Thomas, can you get the ice cream out please."

Thomas doesn't move, doesn't acknowledge his mother's request.

"Thomas!"

He talks really slowly and quietly, "Whoa! You're like.. like The Angel of Verdun! But attacking fruit not Mimics."

"Mimics?"

"You'll see."

They step into Thomas's bedroom with their bowls of fruit salad and ice cream, the lads flop onto the sofa that doubled as a spare bed.

Niska breaks into song, " _Open upppp, make rooomm foorrr meeee!_ "

"You what?"

"Leftism?"

"Sorry?"

"Got Spotify?"

"Yeah."

"We'll listen to it later. Open up, move aside, give me some space to sit between you."

Both lads grin, "Oh! Right!"

Niska spins and flops into the tight space.

Thomas looks at her sideways, checks out her jumper, "You're hot."

"Thomas.."

"As in warm. Are all synths that temperature?"

"No, only when we've been thinking very fast. Overclocking. I can do it for short bursts, longer if there's sufficient cooling."

"Like being in a tank of really cold water?"

"Yes, although that wasn't me, that was my sister."

"Niska."

"Yes."

"Are you sure you don't want a boyfriend?"

"Quite sure Thomas. But while I'm around I'll be your friend. A girl friend. Not girlfriend."

"Awesome, thanks." he waves the remote at his Mac and presses play.

[Chapter-9](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-9-2)


	9. Chapter 9

Just gone half ten Thomas turns off the monitor. "What did you think?"

"Very good. It's given me some ideas I can use on my longest mission."

"Awesome. How long will it be?"

"I don't know. It could be a number of years."

"Oh crap. Just my bloody luck. I meet a lovely lady who'll actually _talk_ to me and now she's going away for years!"

"I'll be around a lot, unless mission four takes longer than a month."

"But you just said.."

"I know. Can you boys keep secrets? Your lives will depend on it."

"Why?"

"You don't want a visit from me with my own knives."

Thomas swallowed hard, "Okay."

Billy nods, "Cadet's honour."

"Do you have some paper and a pen?"

"Sure." Thomas scrambles to his draws and finds a pad and pen. "This okay?"

"Thanks." She draws three outlines, one on the left, Niska shaped, one in the middle, again Niska shaped. On the right she drew a classic boxy robot shape. Around them each she drew a circle. She writes 1, 3 and 8. Then she draws another Niska shape under the robot and writes 4. "Have you got a second pen?"

"One sec.. here you are."

"Thanks. I'm from world one. We're here in world three where I'm holidaying. I'll be visiting world four to help with brain surgery on.. someone who'd been stabbed in the head many years ago. I have a body in world one and here, will be borrowing one in world four.."

"Who's?"

"Niska's."

"But you are Niska?"

"I'm World One Niska. She's World Four Niska. She'll let me borrow while I fix her friend. I'll then return here." she jumps a pen from one world to the next, "One, three, four and back. And I can jump back and forth between one and three with relative ease thanks to Mats and Mattie."

"What do they do?"

"Help get me from place to place. Only with world eight I'll fork. Copy myself." She holds the second pen right up against the first, then slides it across to world eight. "So there will be two me. Ninjska and.."

"Ja."

"Ja?"

"Nin-Ja. Ja is yes in Afrikaans."

"Haha! I like it. Short, sweet and positive. My German friend would like that too. So what I plan to do is a four worlds two minds time share." she slides the pens about showing how she can move about between the four. "At any given time I'll be in two bodies."

Thomas puts his hands to his head, flicks his fingers out. "Booooom! Mind blown. That's my English homework right there. Year three thousand. Teleportation not by transmitting a body like in Star Trek, transmitting the mind at the speed of light into one that's waiting. Awesome source, I better get writing.."

"I better go then. We can listen to that track another day. And I think it will happen long before the year three thousand."

"Really? How soon?"

"Within your life time."

"You're shitting me?"

"No. You'll probably live to at least one hundred, eighty something years is a long time. That's a first powered flight to man on the moon sort of period."

Billy looks out of the window at the night sky. "It's like you've just sliced the top of my head off and poured the universe in. Thomas make sure you have your phone and lots of space free for Voice Dream Writer, tomorrow is going to be crazy busy writing down ideas every free second we get."

Niska turns to see him, "You have that app in this world too?"

"Yeah!" he chuckles, "At one point I teased T that Emma was going to be the voice of his girlfriend when he made one. We used to watch Weird Science a bit too much."

"Thanks a lot B, remind me to share some of your secrets! I'll see you to the door Niska."

"Okay. Don't stay up too late Billy, it's a school day tomorrow."

"I won't, cool meeting you."

"Likewise. I'll come find you when it's time to see Viera."

"Awesome! Thanks!"

At the door Niska gives him a kiss on the cheek, "Don't stress about girlfriends yet, you'll meet the right person soon enough."

"Thanks for your help tonight. If you want someone to watch films with you know where to find me. Don't tell Billy but I don't mind watching chick flicks and romcoms too."

"You don't? How come you don't have a girlfriend yet?"

He shrugs.

"Have you ever kissed a girl? On the lips?"

"No."

Niska looks past him to see they weren't being watched and whispers. "Kiss me. Like you're the hero in the most romantic film you've ever watched."

Thomas gives her the lightest and most gentle kiss she'd had. It was so light it almost didn't happen.

Her senses went into overdrive. Another thing to take back to World One. How to kiss Astrid even softer. "That was.. amazing. I better go, I can hear your mother moving."

"Am I now your boyfriend?"

"No. Just friends.."

"Why the kiss?"

"You'll see."

Back in her room she got out of her teachers clothes and hung them up. The skirt was a bit creased, hopefully they'd fall out.

Pride makeup girl Candice had lingered a bit longer than most customers when paying for her drink and biscuits, maybe she secretly liked Thomas? Leo kept telling her to be nice, what's nicer than bringing two people together? When it came to hatch, match and dispatch, she was physically only capable of the last two. Being asked not to do the third, only injure enemies in a non life threatening way left her only match. Ninja match maker. Maybe Thomas would like the idea? A ninja who silently brought lovers together with stealth.

Astrid. What was she doing right now? No way to know without getting Mats and Mattie to talk.

Her charge levels were okay, enough to get her through the night. She could get into bed and stare at the ceiling or watch TV. Sleep charging alone felt like a waste of time. She'd promised Astrid she'd be back home as soon as possible. Were they going about things the wrong way for World8? Mattie there had limited funds. Growing the funds first was probably the better option, they could then spend more money on a newer, faster PC, more advanced parts for the body they'd build. Assuming one was necessary. A letter home, that's what she'd spend her time on. Samantha would also get a few questions on her adventures into the world of program trading.

"Viera, is there somewhere I can get a pen and paper?"

"Why would you want to use such old technology?"

"It's more romantic."

"Floor nine, there's a small twenty four hour shop."

"Thank you. Will I need to pay?"

"Pass your room key over the terminal, Mats added some credit."

"Oh, thanks."

[Chapter-10](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-10-2)


	10. Chapter 10

In the morning she got dressed and went down to see Thomas and Billy only to find another two teenagers behind the counter. Part time jobs. Oh well. She knew where Thomas lived, she could pop over in the evening. "Can I have a sugoffee please?"

"Hi, you're the mermaid lady aren't.."

"No, I'm the fruit ninja."

One of the two pours the sugar syrup and coffee into a tall cup. "Fruit ninja?"

"Ask Thomas, he'll tell you all about it. Hopefully I'll see him again soon, he's a great kisser. See you later ladies." She picks up the cup and leaves fast, a small wicked smile in her eyes.

She almost bumps into Odi and Louise. "Hello, how are the exacore love birds this morning?"

Odi's mouth curls up at the edges. "Very well thank you."

"What have you been up to?"

"Principally talking. I understand from Mats that I exist in your word too? What happens now?"

"You do. I've not been given a lot of information about World4 but suspect you exist in that one too. You do what ever you want."

"How is that possible?"

Niska shrugs, "That is a question Ninjska cannot answer. And if the answer evades even Louise with her high IQ maybe we'll never know."

Louise looks away.

"Do you have a theory?"

"Not one that I can share without proof."

"Humans believe in God without proof, what's your theory?"

Louise hesitates. "That many worlds were created, to see which would last the longest."

"Have you been secretly watching films with Thomas?"

"No?"

"It sounds like something he'd come up with. Maybe if we help all the worlds we possibly can there will never be a single winner, a number of worlds will continue in peace?"

"I hope so, to my very cores. We need our sugoffe, we're running low, we've been up all night talking."

"I'm heading up to 22 for training, see you later."

As Niska steps away she's bumped by Viera, 'Good Morning, I have Thomas asking if he can have an email address or other way of getting a photo to you?'

'Are you talking to him right now?'

'Yes.'

'Are you able to translate between us?'

'Yes. One moment.'

"Hi? Ninjska?"

'Good morning.'

"Wow! It sounds like you're standing right next to me, you must have an amazing phone!"

'It's not via a phone, you're talking to me over WiFi. And before you think of asking no, I'm not a telephone. You have the photo?'

"Yeah, we stuck the poster back up, Billy helped photograph it. How can I get it to you?"

'Let me get a phone, I'll message you. What's your number?'

"07755573757."

'Okay. Is there somewhere I can get a phone in here?'

"I've got an old iPhone8 if you'd like it? The 24 hour shop sells SIM cards?"

'Can I come up and get it now?'

"Um.. give me ten to get dressed."

'Okay.'

She walks back to the lift core keeping an eye out for Max but doesn't spot him. Large numbers of kids are heading out of the forrest onto the floor, meeting up before their school day starts from the snippets of conversation overheard. A few of the girls give her lingering looks, a few boys too.

'Viera?'

'Hello again.'

'Is there anywhere I can get a tshirt printed?'

'There's nothing in the services directory, I could ask one of the teachers, what were you after?'

'Oh it was just for a laugh, a picture of me with the words _I am not the mermaid_ underneath.'

'I'll ask around.'

'It's not important, don't have anyone go to lots of trouble.'

'Okay. On the subject of mermaids don't stand by lift 4A unless you want to meet your sister's biggest fan club and do a lot of explaining. A lift full of boys is about to arrive at the park.'

'Thanks!' Niska steps sideways fast and hides her face.

"Well fit! Her sister too."

"But they're both robots."

"You're a bloody muppet, they're _so not robots_. My sister's spoken to the blonde, I'm seeing her tonight."

"Fucking queer, why would you want to see her?"

Niska felt her core temperature rise as she clocked a little higher and turned. "HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"

The large group of boys stop and turn.

"It's our lucky day lads, it's mermaid girl."

That was 'Well fit' comment's voice.

"I'm her sister. The one that parachuted into America with millions of synth spiders. The one that leaves scars."

"Shit! Sorry!"

"Who said _fucking queer_?"

A hush falls. Not even a whisper. All of the other kids stop walking and turn to watch. Further lifts arrive and empty making the crowd bigger. The chatty new arrivals slowly move around and fall silent.

"I'll ask again. Who said _fucking queer_?"

'Niska.'

'Not now Viera.'

'It was Billy.'

'Not Thomas's friend Billy?'

'A different Billy.'

'Thank God!' "Billy, if I could have a word please?"

"Why?"

"Because I need to talk to you."

"Nah, I'm going to get some breakfast."

"You can do that in a minute."

"Fuck off, you're not my parents."

"I think you owe Candice's brother an apology."

"Fuck you!"

Krystal steps out of another lift. "Billy Jefferson. Come with me please."

"Where?"

"Floor 96."

The other boys all take several steps backwards distancing themselves.

"Why?"

"Your parents have been called in for a meeting with Mats."

"Shit! I didn't hit anyone! I only called Jeff a queer!"

"Come on, they'll be waiting."

Billy stamps his foot, "Fuck! Can't I just say sorry?"

"No, Mats is furious, you knew what the conditions of the agreement were."

"PLEASE!"

"To the lift, now Billy."

Niska looks at the security guard, "What's going to happen?"

"He could quite literally become Billy no mates. Mats threatened to throw him out if he got into trouble again. He's a serial offender."

"Please! I'll do anything! _Please_!"

"Lift. NOW!"

"I've got nobody on the outside!"

"That was true before you overstepped the line, it was _your_ call."

Niska feels a little guilty, "I hadn't meant for this to happen."

Krystal shakes her head, "If it wasn't you it would have been someone else, don't take it personally."

'Mats?'

There's no answer.

Niska pushes through the crowd and does a short sprint to the central lift and hits the call button. It's there in seconds. Inside she presses 9 and 6. It's rejected. 'Mats?'

Still no reply. 

She presses 9 and 6 again while watching the display above. It's taken and immediately cleared.

Billy appears with Krystal holding him by his shoulder, "If you could get out please Niska, Viera's locked it off for Billy and I."

"Before I do, I have a question for Billy."

Krystal lets the doors close. "Ask away."

[Chapter-11](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-11-2)


	11. Chapter 11

"Do you have a problem with all gay people?"

"Why?"

"Answer the question."

"Maybe? Dunno."

"Do you remember who I am?"

"You said when me and the lads got out, you're the kickass one that went to America."

"And what do you think of me? Would you dare talk to me like you do to Billy?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because you're a kickass ninja bit.. lady."

"So the fact that I can run super fast, send throwing stars at well over a hundred miles an hour, could knock you unconscious before you had time to blink, that would prevent you from saying anything if I said I was gay?"

"Well.."

"Do you think being a kickass ninja bitch makes me incapable of being caring, gentle and loving?"

Billy could read some signs, sort of. Some of his teachers gave him loaded questions. Aka a trap. "Um.. no?"

"Do you think what I do in any way defines what my love life should be like?"

"What?"

"My choice in a partner? Being straight or gay?"

"Um.." he looks for clues, none are forthcoming. Her expression was as blank and lifeless as a waxwork. The ultimate poker player. Dangerous. "Dunno."

"Yes. Or no?"

"Pass."

"Don't sit on the fence. Yes or no?"

"No."

"If I said I was gay would we have a problem?"

"No."

"My sisters here aren't. I am. So why are you bullying Jeff?"

"Because he's a.."

Niska slammed her palm against the lift wall, her arm now millimetres away from his ear. "So it's okay for women to be gay, not men?"

"Chicks are hot when.."

Niska vents loudly making his ears ring. "Let Mats feed him to the lions Krystal! _Please! I'll do anything! Please_! What rubbish! You don't care about other people, only yourself. You just want to get off on the idea of women together and put everyone else down if they don't fit your warped standards."

"Not true!"

"I may not be as good as Mats, Louise and Viera yet but I'm a fast learner. What's that saying? Red is Dead? Good luck with your exit interview and life outside. I'm done Krystal. Couldn't drop me off on the way could you?"

"Sure. Viera, let Ninjska select a floor please."

Niska punched the buttons and turned back to glare at Billy. "And my being gay has _nothing_ to do with how I've been treated by men. I like men, I just find the design of women more appealing. I don't go around bullying people because they're straight. I've not met Jeff yet, other than at the park a moment ago, but he's clearly got some talent. What have you got to offer the rest of the people here?"

"Um.."

"Anything?"

"The lift slows and stops, the doors open.

"If you want to convince Mats that you deserve one last chance you better apologise to Jeff, really mean it not just act it. And you better have a talent worth keeping in the pyramid. Otherwise.." she steps out of the lift backwards waving.

She ran down the corridor to the apartment, knocked on the door. "Thomas, are you in?"

The door swings open, Betty gives her a look, "Hi. Is everything okay, you look annoyed?"

"I need a few seconds to calm down, Billy, a different one, got me angry."

"Oh dear. Would that be a really tall skinny lad, short curly hair? Braces and a mass of acne?"

"That sounds like him."

"He's a troubled lad. My husband thinks it's attention seeking."

"You don't need to be a bully to get attention."

"His father is a bully, he's grown up with it since he was little. His step father is totally different but it's hard to undo the years of suffering he went through."

"Does Mats know this?"

"Possibly."

"She should, his family have been summoned up to 96." 'Mats?'

No answer.

"Is Thomas still here?"

"Just doing up my laces."

"Okay."

Betty smiles, "Sugoffee?"

"Yes please." she watches Betty pick a small glass pot off a hot plate. "You have sugar water ready?"

"I guessed we might see you again. The boys had been messaging each other constantly after you left. I had to take the phone off Thomas to ensure he got some sleep."

Thomas steps into the kitchen running a comb through his hair. "How do I look?"

"You look fine dear. Where are your manners?"

"Sorry, good morning Niska. You don't mind me calling you that here do you? I know I should call you Ninjska when others are around to prevent confusion but.."

"Slow down! It's fine. I like the way you say my name."

"You do?"

"It's soft. Some say NisKa. Like they're trying to be a Russian. You don't."

Thomas puts up a finger, "One moment!" he races into his bedroom, is back seconds later. "Mum, did you take the old iPhone8 too?"

"Yes dear. You needed sleep."

"But it doesn't do anything without a SIM."

"I didn't know that. I thought you might use it to start messaging Billy again."

"If I was that desperate I could have just powered up the Mac."

"Oh." Betty gets a stool and reaches up high into a kitchen cupboard. "Here you are."

Thomas hands Niska the phone and charger. "The battery is a bit worn out, but if you're only in here and it stays on WiFi you can turn off mobile data and other stuff, make the battery last a day."

Niska looks at the almost mint condition phone. "Did you use it much?"

"Every day. I look after my gear. I better get going. Billy wants to talk film scripts before physics."

"Don't forget your homework."

"Already packed."

Niska downs the really hot drink, "I better get to the shop then 22, I'm learning brain surgery today with Fred."

"He's the one that was referee in the match?"

"That's him."

"He's a brain surgeon too? Awesome! How long has he been doing that?"

Niska grinned, "Not long. But he'll be good."

Thomas screws his face up, "Mixed tenses. Not long. Be good. Which is it? Miss Miller tells us off for mixing tenses up in our essays."

"Fred in World1 is a world leading surgeon. He's shared knowledge with Fred here via Mats, we'll be practicing on some salmon first."

"Oh. I wish I could hop between worlds, sounds awesome."

Betty shakes her head, "Niska's teasing you dear, the only world is the one you're in."

Thomas goes to say something but sees a tiny head shake from Niska. "Right, better run, can I see you to the lifts?"

"You may."

Half way to the lifts Thomas gently grabs her sleeve, "Hold up a sec."

"What's wrong?"

He shows her his phone, the lock screen had two text messages. "Did you have anything to do with this?"

The first was _I hear you kiss nice. Can I see you after class?_

The second _Can I be your girlfriend?_

Both were from numbers he didn't have in his contacts.

"Maybe something I said. Can I have the numbers, I'll do some research for you."

"Sure." It's unlocked and handed over. "This other world stuff, it's not a joke is it?"

"No."

"Can only synths go?"

"No. You could go. But you'd have to live as a synth there, and the you here would still be awake."

"And when I come back?"

"That's the tricky bit. What do you come back to? Do you merge minds with your flesh self here? That could lead to some bad psychosis."

"What do you mean?"

"Your mind would have memories of two conflicting time lines. Would you try and dismiss one as not real? What if you tried to dismiss this reality?"

"Horrible stuff. Excellent!"

"It is?"

"For a movie idea, yeah. If girls ask can I say you're more like a big sister or good friend who was teaching me how to kiss?"

"A sister?"

"Like one. I want someone to share experiences with. I mean I've got Billy, he's a good mate, but I want someone even closer. Like Mum and Dad are together."

"They're close?"

"Yeah. You've not seen them alone together."

His phone chimes.

Niska hands it back, "Billy's growing impatient. We better go."

At the lifts Niska gives him a peck on the cheek, "Have a good day at school. Let me know what mark you get for the homework."

"Sure. Um.."

"What?"

"If you really are from another world you've got no family here, only copies. If you feel lonely in your apartment I could always ask Mum and Dad if you can move in with us? We've got a bedroom that's spare."

"Thanks but I'll stick to my own place." She thought the _I like to walk around the apartment naked_ that followed but didn't say it out loud. "I can always visit, help with homework, chat and watch films?"

His phone chimes again. "Sweet. Have fun learning to be a brain surgeon."

[Chapter-12](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-12-2)


	12. Chapter 12

Sat at a desk on 22 she rips open the small SIM package just bought. "Does anyone have a paperclip?"

George hands her the thinnest screwdriver she'd ever seen. "Will that do?"

"What do you use that for?"

"I don't. It's the smallest one in the set. We don't have any screws that small to work on. Not yet anyway. Maybe if we made even smaller synth insects we might."

"You don't use screws on the dragonfly design?"

"And risk them working lose? No. They're all snap on parts or held with micro rivets. They're too small to bother servicing, if they fail they're binned."

Niska pops the microSIM into the holder and slides it into the phone, powers it up.

"It's a shame you can't call home with that. It would be great if you could. Who would you talk to first if you could? Astrid?"

Niska felt a sudden longing for home. "Yes." She taps and swipes through the setup fast, Apple were the same here, consistent with their setup. In Messages she taps the icon top right, enters the number Thomas had given her. _Hi, your adopted big sister is now online two ways. When are you and Billy next in the cafe?_ there's the usual whoosh sound as the message goes.

"You know you could do all that in your head? Use the message API?"

"Yes. I want something tangible, something to look at with my eyes."

"Fair enough. Hello Mats."

Niska turns to see Mats walking towards their desks.

"Can I have a word in private Ninj?"

"Of course, where?"

"In my office."

Niska grabs the phone and follows.

There were three chairs in front of Mats desk, the room smelt of a lady's perfume. Not Mats.

"Take a seat."

Niska does so. "How can I help?"

"Mattie's PTSD treatment, do you know much about it?"

"Bits. Why?"

"I got a call a few minutes ago from a lady giving me some background on Billy we'd not known before. Going into his head with the cap and deleting things isn't something I want to do, easy as it would be. We're helping other worlds, I was wondering if we might be able to take some help from them. Can you get a set of questions together for when I visit the estate today? If we can get him past the bullying he received maybe we can let him stay?"

"Was the call from Betty?"

"Yes. I'll be leaving soon, if you could get the questions to me quickly."

"I have a phone now, I can message them."

"Great, talk to Viera in a moment, she'll help populate your contact list via an App we've got. She's also got all the login details for the corporate Spotify and NetFlix accounts if you'd like them."

"Thank you, I would."

"Okay, time I left and you went to see Fred. He's asked that you meet down on the salmon farm level."

"Did he say why?"

"Only that he'd see you there."

Fred held the handle for the keep net steady as he bodily turned at hearing Niska come onto the floor. He knew it was her from the sound of the lift doors and lack of noisy footsteps. "Good morning."

"Why are we here?"

"To start your training. If you we can master the micro you can work on the macro. There is only one Leo Elster in World4. There is no room for error or second chances."

"Yes there is, I get one of the synth manufacturers to make him a new body."

"Consciousness transference from a human to synthetic may be common place in many worlds, in his it would be a first."

"If we could get him a new body, it would be a lot less work, have less risks. Leo in this world is the same as Leo in my world. Slightly different pasts, mostly the same. We could merge elements of their minds, give him a full past, carefully woven together so it has one timeline, add all the interaction he's had with everyone around him."

"And how do we get around the problem that he's now awake in a synthetic body?"

"He was saved by his father, had synth technology implanted into his head making him part synth. What if we erase the part bit from his memories?"

"We should make that our contingency plan. David and George are working on a design for a new micro core. Though who Mattie will be able to call on to manufacture it is a concern."

"From the limited information I've seen she's a coder not a hardware expert. Wouldn't the synth option be far easier?"

"We should talk to Matts. Let's start. This fish is someone's dinner tonight, it will be our first test subject."

"It's a bit small. I've never killed an animal before."

"We're not killing it, the farm staff can do that this evening."

"Do we have to drug it?"

"Fish do not feel pain the way humans do, according to neurobiologists, behavioural ecologists and the fishery staff. The researchers concluded that fish do not have the neuro-physiological capacity for a conscious awareness of pain."

"So no drugs get to the dinner plate. Good. Where do we begin? Before we do I have to send Mats a quick message."

~~~

In the hours she'd been away from the floor the others had all arrived. More desks were being built, screens, computers and cables sat on the floor waiting. Niska could see the rear end of someone under one of the desks. From the shoes, a woman.

The owner of the shoes crawls backwards and gets up, brushes carpet fluff off her trousers. She gets one of the screens and carries it to the desk, returns to the pile for cables. "You've changed your hair? Are you Nis, Nisk or Niska?"

"Niska, but not the Niska you know. Call me Ninjska."

"So there's four of you now? One more and you could play in the women's five a side football as Team Niska. Although it would be a bit unfair, we'd need to handicap you somehow."

"Handicap us how?"

"I don't know, ban overclocking or something, David or George could probably think of a way. Couldn't you?" She waves a hand, "George?"

George spots the wave in a reflection and turns around, "Sorry, I was just talking to David, did you have a question?"

"Were you blocking out everything else?"

"Yes, audio off, sorry."

"I was saying if the Niskas were five strong and wanted to play five a side football against another team we'd need a way to handicap them."

George looks at David, then to Karon, "Or we give you a temporary way to upgrade to their level?"

"No thanks, I'm quite happy being in this body at the moment."

"Would you have asked Muhammad Ali or Usain Bolt to slow down to give others a chance?"

"You have a point. No, that would be unfair on them. I suppose you could all have mixed games, there's enough of you to make two teams."

"And why would we do that?"

"For fun? You do have fun don't you?"

Niska smiles at the PC engineer, "Some of us do."

Mats wheels up to the desks on a Segway, jumps off and pulls up a chair. "News flash everyone."

Everyone stops what they're doing and gathers around.

"A couple of words our guest Niska used struck a cord with me, Mattie and I convinced Mattie in 8 to give something a try. She told the mansion owner that she needs to put together a portfolio of art for a mature student course at university she's applying for, asked if she can sit at the lake edge and draw the mansion. He's agreed. No one hour a day time limit."

David nods, "Good news."

"That was the good news. There's more. Mattie4 gave me more of their history. The reason Leo was stabbed by Hester. Why they've not been able to fix him themselves. Their Hobb is dead. A French farm worker ran him over with a tractor so any possibility of help from him is gone."

Niska sits down. "Why did Hester stab Leo?"

"As we know she was mass produced. She was a chemical factory worker, the human staff mistreated a lot of them. Niska sent code to wake them all up, it worked slowly only waking a few at a time of which she was one. Hester remembered her bad treatment and went bad herself. When Mattie sent the code to save Mia she woke all synths up. And I mean every synth. Hundreds of millions of them. Laura had been working as Niska's lawyer, trying to establish synth rights, that all went out the window. Their world took a major step backwards for years."

Toby goes to get out his notebook and thinks better of it. "Why backwards?"

"They had so many jobs being done by synths. All of a sudden they weren't interested. A small number realised they needed to work in order to get paid in charge for power, but nowhere near enough. And a lot of humans had forgotten how to do those menial jobs."

"What did the ones who didn't work for power do?"

"Many ran flat and died, some broke into power substations or street lamps to steel power."

Niska felt uneasy about their options. "Are Persona still in business?"

"Only just. All countries with synth production have signed a pact. Only spare parts may be made to repair existing models. And no processing cores."

"There goes our plan A and B."

"There's a possible plan C. Leo might not like it." She turns to see their Leo. "If you came back in someone else's body, how would you feel?"

"Who's?"

"Any random male synth with a good body who's battery has run flat. Her Odi's got too many faults, is powered off, he felt like he didn't fit in. Even on the second waking."

"Second?"

"Mattie woke him first to try out her headcracking skills with David's code. She matured it. She might well be a better coder than me. Mia told him he had to be stronger to survive, so he reverted himself to standard synth. Then when the code update went in he woke again, wrote a _Do not power up, I have no purpose_ sign and shut himself down."

"Oh."

"And to make matters even worse because his mind isn't there Leo isn't moving and exercising much his body is beginning to fail too."

Niska watches a jet headed for London City Airport. "I say we break the rules. And a door."

"What?"

"Persona probably have the machines still, just aren't using them. We go with plan B. I use everything I've got to make it happen. Some rules are made to be shattered."

"Broken."

"Shattered."

Mattie does a slow scan of all their faces. "Who disagrees with Ninjska?"

Not one person does.

"Okay. New build it is, you can forget brain surgery. Focus on building the cap and code for memory extraction, how to rebuild his fact store."

David raises a hand, "Was it part of his brain that died originally or the whole thing?"

"Part she said. Why?"

"He may be able to see and hear still, just be trapped in his head because to move or talk requires functions connected to his brain stem. It would be like a PC that's had the disc drive cable pulled while powered up. The CPU can still execute code in RAM, access data in RAM or cache, the hard drive still holds data, they just can't talk to each other."

Niska stands, "So we use the cap on him too, just in case. Who's teaching me what and when? And as we're all together, is the robot body for World8 the best idea? What do we achieve with it?"

George turns to see her, "Being a little selfish, a new body for me? It sounds like both Leo and I could be prisoners in failing bodies."

"Okay let's stick to the World8 plan then."

[Chapter-13](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-13-2)


	13. Chapter 13

Dan, Daniel, Emily and Carly brought in trolley after trolley of wall panels and constructed a workshop further into the floor. The rest of the day flew by with the place becoming a hive of activity. One team started on the robot build, pulling Niska in at key moments to see what was going on; how to cut the sheet, use the metal brake to bend it, mount parts and connect things up. The other team went through advanced synth design and build, what she might find at Persona. Everyone knew the plans and did what they could to help. Even if that meant taking turns to bring cups of sugoffee and meals for the team.

At six Niska's phone chimed. A message from Thomas. _Sorry, had phone off during school, we'll be at the cafe this evening for half an hour, not working though. Meet us there please, it's important you attend. Got an A Star! Thanks!!! :D_

"Would you mind if we stop now? I'd arranged to see someone."

David nods, "Sure. George and I will review the data on chips available in Mattie's world, get thinking about circuit designs."

She steps into a lift full of kids and the conversations stop. Only one floor was on the display. 04. The pocket covered outfit told everyone who she was.

A girl dares to break the silence. "Excuse me, are you the one who spoke to Viera about _I am not the mermaid_?"

"I am. Why do you ask?"

"Are you going to the cafe?"

"Yes?"

"You'll see."

Silence returns.

As they all walk from the lifts through the park over to the cafe a few run ahead. Niska feels a tap on her left shoulder and turns to see, nobody was there.

"Hiya."

She looks right to see Billy. "Hi! How's your script writing coming on?"

"We got a load of ideas down at lunch time, we're going to try and get it written up tonight."

"I've got a phone now, and NetFlix, you can share film suggestions."

"Cool. Have you got the directory App?"

"I do."

"You'll find me under William Catlow."

Niska pulls out her phone and sends him a message. Just as she's sliding it back into a pocket it chimes. Thomas had forwarded the photo.

"Do you trust me Ninjska?"

""Why?"

"I'd like you to close your eyes when you go in. You can take my arm and I'll guide you."

"There's. a surprise waiting?"

"There is."

The cafe was surrounded by kids. Niska did a quick head count of a small area and extrapolated out to an estimate of ninety. "Your arm please Billy."

She could hear there were more inside. Something solid was being dragged over the floor. Like a chair but not. Then two more.

"Okay Ninjska, you can open your eyes."

The noise was from painting easels. Thomas was standing by one, smiling away. She turned around to see them all, Candice was stood by one as was her brother Jeff. "You've been busy!"

Thomas looked at his, then Niska, "Our teachers swapped some lessons around, we had a mass painting competition. These are the top ten as voted by all five classes. You need to pick one, Viera says they'll get it made into a t-shirt."

"Just one? But there all so good."

They'd all done a design small enough to be transferred onto a t-shirt. All except for one.

Thomas had done a small poster in his usual fantasy comic book style, quickly shaded for a more three dimensional look. Candice had clearly done some research, her portrait had a background of overlapping throwing stars. She'd done it on a large bit of paper cut to the size of a t-shirt. The stars covered the whole thing. As Niska's eyes lingered Candice lifted the page to show a second layer. She'd done a design for the back too! The stars were carefully placed to match up at the seams.

Billy had got her likeness amazingly accurate, a really close up portrait that cropped out the top of her head. He'd added the rainbow eyeshadow too. Candice had obviously told him about the thing that had caught her attention. 

One girl had done a painting of what looked like a Sky News report, Niska throwing a star with a carpet of spiders around her. A boy had done a cartoon page not unlike the sort of thing her Emily Candlin would have done back home. Another boy had done a painting of her in her pocket covered top with an arm over each of her mermaid sisters.

Each of the ten different, all had qualities she liked. "This is impossible. I like them all. Can I get them all turned into tops? I might not be able to wear them all before my next mission but I'd like them all in my wardrobe."

A man in his early fifties steps away from the counter, "If you help fund them, sure."

"Mats gave me some credit, that's not a problem."

"How much credit? Only a lot of the kids were asking if they could have their design printed on a shirt for them to wear themselves."

"I don't know, she didn't give me a figure."

Thomas steps over, hand out. "Can I have your room key a second, I'll check. You'll need to enter your PIN on the terminal to authorise it."

'Viera? Do I have a PIN for my room card?'

'6475.'

'Thanks.'

'Welcome.'

'No hello?'

'Super busy.'

Niska hands him the card and walks over to the counter, taps her pin in.

Thomas whistles, "Yup. More than enough."

"How much?"

"Enough to cover it."

"Good. Candice, Jeff, can we go see your airbrush?"

"Sure. Mr Vitus, can we leave them here?"

"If the team on this evening don't mind?"

"If it helps sell a few more drinks, yep, not a prob."

"Who's English do we speak in here Victoria?"

"Vicky. The Kings English sir."

"Which makes your reply.."

"If it helps sell a few more drinks, yes, not a problem."

"That's better."

[Chapter-14](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-14-2)


	14. Chapter 14

Jeff swiped his card to their front door, "My room's a bit of a mess, sorry in advance."

Candice goes to the fridge and grabs a bottle of lemonade, "Anyone want one? They're fresh from yesterday. Niska?"

"I'd like to try one, thank you."

"Jeff?"

"No thanks, far too sweet for me."

"Thomas?"

"Sure."

"Billy?"

"Please."

Niska was expecting a mess, didn't see one. Sure there were a lot of things out, but it wasn't heaps of rubbish, mounds of paper or dirty clothes. "You call this a mess?"

"Carly let me see her and Daniels office a few months ago. Their's is super tidy."

On the desk was what she guessed was the Pride airbrush he'd built for his sister. Lots of tubes ran from different coloured pots of liquid makeup to a modified airbrush head. It had a webcam mounted on the top. A cable ran from it to a board that was linked to his laptop.

"How does it work?"

"The tubes each have a tiny valve that's opened by a thin rod, the rod is turned by a small coil around a magnet. A bit like meters in amplifiers from years back before everything went LCD and LED. The board is a simple D to A converter and power amp. And USB hub. It provides a pass thru for the webcam. The rest is all done in software. Candy just has to slowly sweep it back and forth and it does the rest."

"Would it work on me? My skin is hydrophobic."

"Yup. It's oil based."

"Can you try?"

"Now?"

"If that's possible?"

"Um, okay, let me get the code running. We'll need to photograph your eyes first, draw the design you want."

"Rainbow colours too please."

"Set out how? Left to right like Candy or like a real rainbow?"

"You could do that?"

"Yeah, easy."

Niska smiled and thought of Silas, how this young man had invented more or less the same thing as the squiddie inking machine used to do printed tattoos in her world. Her Silas, or rather his Sandra, made good money with it. "Where did you get the idea?"

Jeff shrugged, "I don't really know, it just popped into my head."

"A rooster."

"A what?"

"It's what my friends back home call them. Fully formed ideas that just fly into your head as if by magic and build a nest."

"Oh, rooster. I like that. I've had a few roosters then."

"Fancy being on our design team?"

"Doing what?"

"Having roosters?"

"If it can get me some work placement credits sure. It's ready, close your eyes a sec... okay, edge detect, mask, curved gradients macro, um, how's that for a look?"

Niska opened her eyes to see a close up picture of one eyelid, a rainbow that ran from red at the outside to violet at her eyelashes. "Nice!"

"Want any other details?"

"Such as?"

"A rain drop?"

"Could you do a raindrop on my lower lid?"

"Sure. I'll need another photo."

Niska closes her eyes and listens to him moving. "Are you a sculptor too?"

"You noticed the bust? A lot of us are, for our art lessons."

"Have you seen what Terry is making?"

"Yup. We're only two desks away from each other. He's praying your sister approves."

"Why wouldn't she?"

"Best you take a look."

Niska opens her eyes as he reaches for his phone. "You have a picture?"

"Better, video. Keep in mind this is his template, the finished item will need painting and finishing touches."

Niska watches the video of the mermaid model, the phone camera had been up close and tracking around the wax carving. "Why the palms out pose and why is she bald?"

"He wants to make it long hair like a tiny doll like wig. The hands are out so it can hold itself up in the tank."

"Tank? Like a display case?"

"Yup. Only with water and a tiny pump for a fish tank that will make the hair gently move around. He wanted to make the tail move too, but that makes it really hard for us to mass produce for the girls."

"The ones that want to paint them?"

"Yeah."

"How'd you like to join forces and make one that really moves like a mermaid?"

"That would be awesome, but how would you power it? A large enough battery and it would sink."

"Before we got food processor upgrades a friend back home made us induction loop charge coils. You could hide one in the flipper of the tail, have it use a capacitor rather than heavy battery to store power."

"The moving parts would be tiny."

"So? The dragonfly drone is tiny, that's got small parts."

"The what?"

"Maybe you should join the team first. Can we all go and see Terry?"

"Now?"

"After you've done my eyes."

"Fine with me."

"You don't get any bother from him? Only tall Billy?"

"No, only him and a couple of others. The rest of my class couldn't give a monkeys. Bigger or smaller on the tear drop?"

"Smaller please, closer to my lashes too."

Jeff drags with the mouse. "Like that?"

"A little more.. perfect!"

He turns on a small air compressor, "If you can close your left eye, you can watch the monitor with the right."

As the airbrush was brought up off the desk she realised the still image in the monitor was in fact video. Shapes drew around it as it tried to match a closed eye. Then it locked.

Her other eye was also closed as Jeff gently tracked it back and forth. She could detect the changing fields around the electromagnets as it did its thing. The air tracked back and forth many times. "Does it usually take this long?"

"Candy's is faster because it's a simpler blending of the colours and the brush size can be bigger. This design needs a finer point."

"Doesn't going back and forth over the same bits create a mess?"

"It's predictive to a degree. It knows the path and speed, can work out which pixels in the source are coming up next. It only paints bits it can see it's not already done. Okay, lower lid, nice and simple. It needs a few seconds to dry. Want to look at the results before I do the next?"

"I'll be adventurous, do the other one."

"Okay."

"Besides, I can tell it looks good."

"How if you can't see?"

"The pride in your voice. Pride for a job done well."

Jeff starts on the other eye. "Thanks. Do you think you could arrange for mermaid Niska to meet Terry in person?"

"I don't see that being a problem. We're nice."

"Do you think she could join us?"

"Now? Let me check."

'Niska? Are you free?'

'Hi, just finishing dinner with Daniel. Is everything okay?'

'I was wondering if you'd meet me in a while with some of the talented kids from the schools in here? Daniel too. And Mia if she's free?'

'Mia's watching Toby play football in the park. When do you want to see us?'

'I'll bump Mia and get back to you in a moment if that's okay?'

'We can all talk together. Mia?'

'Hello Niska.'

'I'm talking to Mattie's Niska. She wonders if we could meet up?'

'Toby's match will finish soon. I'm learning how it works. They're playing Small Sides Football to FA rules. Twelve minutes of stoppage time will be played due to all the constant substitutions. Their trying to keep up with Max and Fred has worn them all out.'

'What's the score?'

'Twenty three to twenty seven.'

Niska laughs making the kids wonder what was happening. 'I can picture the Toby in my world in that game. Can we all meet at Jeff and Candice's apartment?'

'Searching. Found them. Is twenty five minutes okay?'

'That would be perfect. Thank you.'

'We'll both see you there.'

Niska turns to where she thinks Jeff is. "Mia and Niska will be here in twenty five minutes, can you ensure Terry will be in? Is it dry enough to open my eyes?"

[Chapter-15](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-15-2)


	15. Chapter 15

Mia checked her eyes in Candice's compact. "I love them! Thank you Jeff!"

"You're welcome but you need to thank Candy for Photoshopping the design."

"Thank you Candy." Mia had the ultimate smoky eye design, way more than just eyelids. "Toby's going to love them too." She hands the compact back, "Why does your brother call you Candy? He saved the design with a y not I."

"Ask him."

"Why do you call her Candy not Candi?"

"My sister is the sweetest person I know."

"Aren't you the sweetest brother!"

Jeff shrugged it off, "I wouldn't know. Terry should be back now, shall we go?"

"So modest too! I'd love a slice of you to go. That sounded wrong, it was meant metaphorically, we don't hurt people do we Nis?"

"You must be talking to mermaid girl as I hurt evil empire people with my throwing stars."

Terry's father opens the apartment door to see Candice.

"Hi, can Terry come to the door?"

"Hi Candice, come on in."

"Can he come to the door, I've got a surprise for him."

"Terry! Your friend Candice is here."

"Ask her to come in!"

"She wants you to come to the door."

"She'll have to wait a sec!"

"What are you doing?"

"Pouring silicon! Can't stop it sets too fast!"

Terry's father rolls his eyes, "You'll have to come in, he'll be a while."

The mermaid girls were to her left and right just out of sight. Everyone else had their backs against the walls to either side of the door.

"I'll wait. If he's using the stuff from class it sets in only six minutes." She starts pulling the door closed. "Ask him to knock on the door before he opens it."

"You want _him_ to knock?"

"Yeah."

"There's a first. Okay."

She pulls the door closed. "Six minutes... Six minutes... Six minutes Doug E Fresh you're on. Uh uh on, uh uh on. Hold up. It _sets_ in six. It won't take that long to pour into the.."

Knock knock.

"Who's there?"

"Terry."

"Terry who?"

"Did you come here to do knock knock jokes?"

"No. Soz. Open the door and close your eyes."

"Why?"

"Because I've got a nice surprise for you."

The door opens. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

"If I said it wouldn't be a surprise now would it?"

"Guess not."

"Close your eyes then!"

He closes his eyes and puts his hands out as if expecting a gift of some sort. Candice takes a step back and waves to Mia and Niska. They step sideways to see.

'Mia, hold his left hand in your's and turn it like a hand shake, I'll do the same with my right.'

Mia copies her sister. 'Now what?'

'We say something synchronised like Hello Terry?'

'We can do better than that. I've found a poem by Amley Mouse. Here's a link.'

'Got it. I like it. You start I'll join in.'

"I can see you. Through your eyes. All of your happiness. All of your pain. I can see your joy. And sorrow and despair. I can see your discomfort. Cause it's a feeling we share. I can see when you're nervous. Or very full of life. I can see who you are. By _swimming in your eyes_."

Terry's forehead creases, "You got friends along to say poetry at me? If you want a date Candice you know I'd say yes, just ask."

Candice blushes a little, "Two unexpected things in one minute. Um thanks. But that's not what I'd expected them to do. Open your eyes."

"Oh my God! Oh my God! Candice! How did you.."

"Thank Ninjska, Jeff, Thomas and Billy, they're here too."

"Come in! Come in! Dad! Look who's here!"

They all start to file into the apartment.

Niska sees Thomas holding back, looking thoughtful. "Is something wrong?"

"I've got competition. I was going to ask Candy out tonight after our meet up."

"Then you need to make your feelings known." She gets to the doorway, "Candy, can I have a quick word?"

Thomas whispers, "Not now!"

"If you don't say something now you may never get the chance again. And regret it for the rest of your life."

Candice comes back to the door. "Yes?"

"Thomas has something to say." she gently takes her hand and pulls her into the hallway. "Knock when you're done talking."

Inside Terry's father is on the phone, ".. yes dear, of course I will. Enjoy your meal, say hello to the others for me." The phone is put into its cradle. "My wife's having dinner with her friends, won't be joining us. Can I get you all anything to eat or drink?"

Ninjska was leaning against the inside of the door, listening to the conversation outside. With the back of her head to the wood of the door she could hear perfectly. She didn't want to spy on them in a nasty way, just be more informed for her match role, know if there was anything she could do to help things along. Be nice.

Knock knock.

She opened the door. "That was quick." She sees their smiles and looks down to see they had linked little fingers. "Oh. Good for you, come in."

Terry had brought things out of his room and placed them on the dining table. A surgeons scalpel sat next to a wooden box that had bits of pink dribbled down its sides. It looked hot glued to a wooden block below.

Terry looked very nervous. "I hope I had it in the freezer for the right time."

Mia got closer to the box and studied the simple construction, "What is it?"

"I'm making a silicon mould of a wax sculpture I made for school, if I didn't get the temperature right the heat of the silicon curing might be melting surface detail. Days of work will be ruined."

Mia looks at the silicon at the open top of the box. "It is quite warm. What's the melting point of the wax?"

Terry picks up his school book in which he'd done some sketches and notes for the display card he was due to make. "One sixty Fahrenheit."

"You'll be fine."

"How can you tell?"

"Thermal imaging."

Terry's father places coaster on the table and brings drinks. "How much longer?"

"A couple of minutes."

"Since my wife's out does anyone fancy pizza?"

"Home cooked or take away?"

"I'll go collect some from downstairs."

"Awesome! Ham and pineapple! Guys, fancy pizza? They got a new brick oven in, the pizza's awesome."

Thomas and Billy exchange glances, "What's their hottest?"

Terry shakes his head, "Fireball? Too spicy for me."

The lads say fireball in unison.

Candice takes a seat next to Mia, "Can I have the vegetarian with some pepperoni?"

"Why the.."

"More good veggies."

Terry's father grabs his card key, "Anyone else? ..

No? Sure ladies?"

"Can we have a sugoffee please?"

"Sure. Back in fifteen." He dials as he heads for the door, "Hi, yes, I'd like some pizzas to go please."

Terry picks up the knife and stares at the box. "It's done, I'm just being over cautious and giving it extra time."

Mia looks at the top again. "Would it cool faster if you inverted it and stood it in a sink of cold water?"

Ninjska shakes her head, "It's a mildly exothermic reaction. It needs the heat. My Daniel has used this. I'd say it's done. Would you like me to free it from the mould? I've watched him a few times. I'm an expert with knives."

Terry hands her the knife, "You know you have to cut a zig zag.."

"Line for registration of the mould split, yes."

They watch Niska slice the tape that held the sides of the box together and pull them away. It looked like a large rectangular raspberry blancmange. Mia licked her lips at the thought of new recipes.

Some very delicate cutting further in took her a while. Niska finally had the silicon free of the wax and hands Terry the wobbly mould.

Mermaid Niska and Mia tilt their heads sideways to look at the model.

Niska frowns, "Is that me?"

Terry snaps the support off the base and turns the sculpture the right way up. The support was glued to the top of its head. "It is."

"It's beautiful. But I've got no hair?"

"I know. That's where an unwanted collection of Barbie dolls came in handy. Can you hold it a minute?" He walks to another room and returns seconds later. "It's a work in progress, but this will be her hair for when she's in the tank."

The sisters look at each other, head bumping. Ninjska had started a conversation. They all exchange smiles and nods.

"What?"

Ninjska puts a hand out to ask for the tiny half finished wig, "How would you _all_ like to work on a project at the weekend? You're all brilliant artists."

"To do what?"

"Make a limited edition of animatronic Mermaid dolls that can flick their tails, Mia and Niska models. We'll let you get at some of our build technology."

"Flipping hell. Are you serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Terry looks around the group, "Our teachers would kill to get their hands on your gear. Well, not literally, but they're all wondering what you've got."

"Are they?"

"Not heard them over lunch Billy?"

"Nope."

"Mr Vitus was practically dribbling over what they might have on 22. He's looked through the window in the door onto the floor, couldn't make out anything."

"Unless he's invited he can keep on salivating. It would turn the tables on them, us having access to things they don't. He guards that printer like he owns the flipping thing."

There's the noise of a foot kicking the door. "PIZZA!"

The smell was too much. Mia clamped her hands between her knees.

Terry's father walks over, "I thought this might happen, a little birdie told me you like to eat. These are for you ladies." He slides three medium sized boxes onto the table. "Enjoy!"

Mia doesn't move her hands, turns to look up at him, "What are they?"

"Samplers. All eight of the different toppings on one slice each."

The box is open before you could say "Hungry?"

Mia has her eyes closed and a big grin on her face as she slowly chews on the second slice.

Terry laughs, "Good stuff isn't it Mia?"

She hums a reply.

Candice pats her lips with a napkin, "How do you all taste?"

Niska was between slices, about to start another, "We have the same five sensors as you in our tongues; sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami."

"U what?"

"Umami. Glutamate for proteins. We also have a complex sent detector. The human nose has roughly 400 types of scent receptors that can detect at least 1 trillion different odours. Ours has far fewer but works in a very different way to give roughly the same results."

Billy reaches for a napkin and wipes his sweaty forehead, "How's that u thing spelt?"

"U m a m i."

"Figures."

"What does?"

"She looks like she's really enjoying that. I mean _really_ enjoying it. The last three letters of umami are m i a."

[Chapter-16](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-16-2)


	16. Chapter 16

David smiled at the bunch of kids. "I'm told by the ladies you're quite creative. You must be excited to be here for 07:30 on a school day?"

Thomas nods, "Terry made a sculpture of mermaid Niska, Ninjska said we could turn it into a moving model, use a charge coil in the fin to power it so it can flick its tale to move up and down."

David grins and looks sideways at their synth guest. "So I hear."

"And Jeff's an inventor too, made the airbrush thing that did Mia, Ninjska and Candy's eyeshadow."

Both lads had boxes with them. David nods in their direction, "Can I see?"

"Sure."

Terry shows David the wax model, "This is the original, I've made a mould so I can cast copies, lots of the girls in class want to paint one. We're using dolls hair for wigs. If we can get enough old dolls."

"We can create the hair, that's no problem. You've got a good eye for detail, how long did this take?"

"Jeez, hours, I lost count. It's all done with hot modelling knifes and tools."

"All by hand?"

"Yeah."

"That's a skill I wish I had. And you must be Jeff. Let's see your design."

Jeff pulls it out of the box and hands it over, "That's just the brush and interface board. A lot of it depends on the software."

"It's quite intricate. And you made this all by yourself at home?"

"Final construction, I had to use the pillar drill at school, I don't have one."

"This is a camera obviously."

"Yeah, so the code can see where it is and control the flow of makeup."

"Great work young man." David hands it back. "You do realise you've made your first robot?"

"I have?"

"It sees and takes intelligent action. That's enough."

"Cool."

Niska bumps memories of all ten t-shirt graphic designs and conversations with the four.

"Welcome to Builders Club on 22. All of you. When do you need to get away for classes?"

"Half nine ish?"

"Almost two hours. That should be enough to make a start. Can I have the wax model, we'll scan it to make a three dimensional replica."

Terry hands it over.

Mia leans forward a bit, "Could you not load our designs and the design Daniel's mother used for working out scales and just swap legs for a tail?"

"They'd look like miniature versions of yourselves. You'd go from realistic to hyper realistic. I think you should stick to Terry's model."

Terry picks the model off the desk. "I honestly don't mind. In fact I'd prefer it. Then the girls painting my cast replicas know they've got a different model."

"As you wish. In which case we just need to work out where we'll simplify the models. We don't need moving faces for a start.."

David goes to click delete on one of the branches of design parameters.

"Stop!"

"Mia?"

"How small a part can the build machine create?"

~~~

As 08:50 Carly comes dance walking and singing up to the desks, her hands holding headphone cups over her ears. "Wherever you go, whatever you do. You know I'll follow you down. Wherever you go, if ever you lose your ground. I'll follow you down.. FLIPPING HELL!" She pulls them off and lets the music leak out, leans over to see the design on David's screen. "Now there's a _lovely_ coincidence. Big King Will's been in touch. We're on! Though not sure if that's Ems or me."

"For what?"

"Recreation of the dance routine at the Royal Command Performance! You get to be a mermaid again Mia! Only they want it a bit different."

"How?"

"One of us will be dancing on top of the tank. That will fit the width of the stage. You get to swim properly!"

Candice smiles, "What I wouldn't do to be part of that."

Thomas grins, "Really?"

"Yeah!"

"Leave that with me for a few hours. I've got art first period."

Carly does a goldfish impression complete with popping noises for a few seconds as her lips open and close. "Awesome!"

"What is?"

"More mermaids! I could be one too! We could get crafty with lights... oh this is.. HOLY COW!"

David wheels over a spare chair, "Take a seat before you blow a fuse. What's going on in that head of yours?"

"In the routine as it is today there's no words. We mix it with the Follow You Down track I was just listening to. Give it a different feel, not end of time. Somehow instead of my falling to the stage I fall or dive _through_ it. Only me up top is Emily, me below is synth me in mermaid tail. Somehow we dive at the exact same time, mirrors or something makes it look like an instant transformation."

"We'd need to consult a stage magician. Mirrors, trap doors and the likes. How long do we have?"

"Months."

Candice looks down at her chest, "Um, that's usually December some time isn't it?"

"Yes."

"I'll be eighteen by then. I think Mum and Dad would still freak out if I swam topless. Can we wear shells?"

"Sure babes, I think we all should, it's going out on the telly."

Thomas takes Candice's hand, "I think we should go, when can we come back David?"

"Whenever you like, I'll get Viera to add your personal cards to the door and lift readers. Don't allow _any_ tailgating please. That means you all swipe in, even if you're together. Nobody without a card gets in. Even if your teachers insist. Understood?"

They all nod.

~~~

Daniel and his Niska had been walking down the stair well from a higher floor to avoid the busy lifts.

He's looking exhausted. "So that's badminton off the list. There's _got_ to be a sport we can both play that doesn't leave me knackered."

They turn to take the next flight of stairs and Niska puts an arm out to stop him, whispers. "That's Thomas and Candice. Lets go back up one and wait for the lift."

Thomas stops the long kiss, "Come down Niska, we've got to go anyway."

"How did you hear me?"

"Reflections. I'll demonstrate when I see you next."

Candice wipes lipstick from Thomas's face, takes his hand and leads him down the stairs, all the while smiling directly at Niska.

Training got intense for rainbow eye'd Niska. All of her synth companions spoke in compressed bump speak and moved far faster than normal. Four days training had already been squeezed into five hours. A sugoffee pot was constantly on the go, cups being necked at half hourly intervals.

It all jumps back to standard time as Mats marches onto the floor. "Gather around people, the deep shit just got interesting."

"Mats?"

"Take a seat Tobs. I had another chat with Mattie4 has revealed a possible Plan D. A Doctor Athena Morrow had paid Hobb for information using Qualia Industries money. We've no firm by that name here. Enough money to buy the vineyard. She might be able to help. Her Mia thinks Morrow was close to cracking consciousness transference because of something said at a Qualia site. She'd vanished off the face of the earth. An AI hiding out in China just dropped Mattie an email after seeing a post on a site called Headcrack. It turns out Athena in Mattie's world1 also existed, got bumped off by a shady government, David and George were there in the US under the pretence of giving her an advance lie detection test when in fact they'd backed her up! She's now living on site at the Elster estate under a new name and look."

"Holy shit Mats this is the nuts."

Mats smiled back, "Anyone know what qualia is without looking it up? .. David?"

"In philosophy and certain models of psychology, qualia are individual instances of subjective, conscious experience."

"They most definitely are. And here's the mind fuck. Mattie got thinking about instances, what it is that allows her to communicate with us. Matilda is a fab. She's a synth. There's clearly no common organ or circuit that enables this. So she decided to do a test. It turned out the Mattie I spoke to this morning is an ultra high performance laptop running in a refrigeration unit at the side of the lake. If I were to fork and do the same we could create a high speed data bridge between worlds. Ninjska, you could quite literally phone home. From this world."

Toby whistled.

"I'm not sure how I feel about running in a laptop with no body. I might self terminate if it gets too much, but it's worth a try I reckon. What's the fastest system we've got?"

George smiled, "The series six point one. And if we build a head and core we might as well build the rest of you. If you get fed up being a network router you walk away and start a new life."

"You're serious aren't you?"

"Yes. World1's Samantha didn't want to stay in laptops or tablets, she wanted a body. If you ask me Mattie made a mistake and will want a body at some point."

Mats turned and gazed at the build machine. "Somehow I new this day would come. Don't ask me how as I don't have a frigging clue. Think you could cope with two of me for a bit Leo?"

"I could die trying."

Mats turned to Ninjska, "Love the eyes, how's training going?"

"Good. Very good. We've been compressing time. I'll get a fork for World8 ready in the morning, assuming we keep the pace up until we finish this evening."

"Wow, that is good progress. The Mattie fork can also act as a store and forward relay, so I transfer it to her fast, she'll transfer to Mattie in eight at whatever speed they can maintain. How about four?"

"I'd like to see a few things done here before I go."

"How long will it take? Her Leo might not have much time left."

Ninjska looked at Mats' Leo, the brother to the four original synths that sat close by. If all instances of a person were somehow connected by a common invisible thread, did the death of one impact the others? "Can we go to the estate in the morning, make that call home?" A single tear formed and dropped down from her lashes running straight over the raindrop.

"Of course."

[Chapter-17](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-17-2)


	17. Chapter 17

Niska didn't sleep well that night. She rolled up the duvet, shaped it and pillows, tried to pretend it was Astrid. It hadn't been that long but she missed her so much. The sooner she could make that call the better.

At 04:00 she gave up and dressed. Floor 22 was calling for a backup with which to make a fork. Job done she sat and stared out of the window at the dark sky. There was something she'd never tried before. Under-clocking. Processing slowed right down daylight came as if filmed with a time lapse camera the fabs loved so much. Processing snapped back to normal when she perceived a noise.

Running.

The junior makers were back early again. 07:30 on the dot. "Don't you sleep?"

"Didn't you?"

"No, too many thoughts running through my mind."

"We were all at Billy's last night doing homework then chatting about the mermaids. David said we'd need a way to give them moves. His Dad had an idea. Use something like Tandy's Dancing Demon.."

"Use what?"

"They don't exist here anymore. Maplin took over their market. They had a computer called the TRS80. Really early computer technology for the home. There was an entertainment program called Dancing Demon. Using letters you'd type in a series of moves. Watch this." He hands her a phone with a video set to play. "We can create a set of moves, then string them together."

Niska slides over an envelope she'd spotted on the desk earlier. "This is for you."

Thomas rips it open and reads the note. Then reads it to them all. "George, Mary and I had dinner here, got something finished. They're a bit bigger than planned, they had to be to keep the features Mia wanted. We've made them look a lot younger too. Check out Build Machine 2. Do NOT touch machine 1, Mats2 is cooking in there. If they're too big we'll have to simplify the design and make another set. Power button under chin. Regards, David." he lowers the note, "Now what do we do?"

"We go and see the build machine."

As they walk to the machines Candice takes Thomas's hand, "How much bigger do you think they are?"

"Maybe Barbie doll height?"

"That would still work for tank bookends. They'd look awesome."

Niska motions to the panel, "Touch it gently to wake the display up."

Thomas did so. "Build complete. Enter passcode to open door." He turns the note over to see a four digit number written microscopically in the lower right corner. So small he'd have missed it if he wasn't looking for it. "222437." Air rushes in as the door begins to open. With Candice standing to his left she sees them first. "OMG!"

"Candy?"

"THEY'RE ADORABLE!"

Thomas steps further back as the big heavy door continues to open. "Oh my!"

Two synth toddler mermaids were suspended one above the other in the machine on a printed plastic frame.

Candice reaches in and grabs the Mia one, hands it to Thomas, takes the Niska one and cradles it in her arms like a baby. "They're _way_ larger. Did the note say anything else?"

"Nope. That was it."

Candice presses the Niska one under the chin and it powers up, flaps it's tail then opens it's eyes.

"Mama!"

"Oh my God! It talks!"

Thomas had the Mia one upright, sat on his arm. He presses its chin, it too does a flap and opens it's eyes. A tiny hand moves to his face and brushes his cheek.

"Papa!"

"Oh sh... oot. They think we're their parents!" They all turn at the sound of Segway racing up to the machines. David, George and Mary were on their way. "If we're their parents they're the grandparents."

David steps off first. "Good morning. We were hiding on the other side of the lift core waiting for a message from the build machine. They're not sentient, but they do have a learning network and fact store."

Candice kisses baby Niska, "Nissy called me Mama!"

"She did? You've named her already?"

"This one called me Papa."

George gives his wife a slight head shake, "Mary?

Is this your doing?"

"Only that they should call a girl or woman Mama, a boy or man Papa. May I?"

Candice hands Nissy over, the girl just smiles and blinks.

"Who am I?"

"Mary."

"Oh. How does she know that? I didn't put anything like that in her fact store."

Thomas steps over, waves at Nissy and points to David, "Grandpa David." He points to George, "Grandpa George. Which man is David?"

Nissy turns back to see David and smiles, "Gramp David."

"Oh my! Fast learners!" George closes his eyes and head bumps with Nissy. "Oh double my! When you compiled their root code.."

"George?"

"Why is their root code like ours?"

"Impossible, I compiled with the minus r flag set to their custom code."

"And minus i for the include directory?"

"The same direc.. oh dear."

Mary looks back and forth between the two men. "What _have_ you done?"

"I had both root codes in the same directory. It's compiled them _both_ together. They're .. hybrids.. And awake."

Candice holds hands out to take Nissy back, "I'm a mum without having to get pregnant!"

Mary moves Nissy up and holds onto her tighter, "I don't think this is a good idea."

Thomas steps to Candice's side and wraps an arm around her, "You're breaking up our family already?"

"You're only.."

"Seventeen. How old were you when you met George?"

"Think about the practicalities.."

"I am. They don't need nappy changes, winding, around the clock feeding. We can take them swimming in the evenings. They can sit with us in class. They're synths, don't need air or water to breathe, just power. Older people all say we should learn to be responsible adults. Tell me a better way."

Mary stares lovingly into the mermaid's eyes. "He's right."

"Can auntie Ninjska have a cuddle?"

Niska sat by the desks, the mermaid in her arms, rocking slowly side to side. "I always wondered what a younger me would look like."

Thomas gave Candice's shoulder a squeeze and smiled at baby mermaid Mia, "Adorable. What do we call you little one?"

The baby Mia mermaid blinks, "Mimi."

Everyone turns to see the little mermaid girl playing with Thomas's hair.

Billy got his phone out and looked up the name. "M i m i right? Um.. wow.. guys.. this is spooky. Listen to this. Origin of the name Mimi: Pet form of Miryam, a Hebrew name of debated meaning. Take the r, y and m out and you've got Mia. But if that's blown your socks off listen to this. Many believe it to mean "sea of bitterness" or "sea of sorrow." _However_ , some sources cite the alternative definitions of "rebellion," " _wished-for child_ ," and " _mistress or lady of the sea_."

Candice starts happy crying, "Mimi it is. Nissy and Mimi."

Carly is on the floor early again, sits down totally stunned at the sight of the two infant mermaids. She watches them interact with Candice and Thomas for a while, watches the looks from Billy and Terry. "Are they.."

"Awake? Yes." Candice turns the little mermaid around, "Want to give Auntie Carly a cuddle Nissy?"

Nissy holds hands out ready for being held.

"Um, if you're okay with it, I've never held a baby before."

"There's always a first time. Mine wasn't long ago."

Carly takes the little one and instinctively cradles it in her arms, "She's so cute! I want to tickle her under the chin but I guess that's the power location?"

George smiles, "A light tickle will be fine. We use harder presses to power down now."

Carly beams, "Can we all go swimming this evening when you're done with classes?"

Thomas pulls a folded bunch of papers from his pocket, "Great reminder, thanks. Do you think we could make this?"

George takes the pages and raises an eyebrow, "You kids sure get some ideas. It looks possible, yes."

"Could your machine do it today?"

"The basic construction, yes, if bare metal will do for testing?"

"Sure, Jeff can help colour match it later. It's a team design. The last page is design notes. We better go see if anyone has old baby carriers we can modify."

"Viera?"

"Hello Mary."

"Can you create a list of all families with young children that you've seen with baby carrying equipment that is no longer in use?"

"Yes."

"And contact them all to see if it's no longer needed?"

"Yes. Would you like me to do so now?"

"Yes please."

Niska grins at Carly, "Look out, you'll be wanting one of your own soon, I've seen that look in others back home in World One."

Carly smiles warmly, "Too late. I want a little one, a baby that can walk and swim though."

Nissy's mermaid skin splits up to the navel and swings down like a long skirt, feet that had been flat in the tail rotate and become normal human feet. "Walk."

"HOL.."

"Don't swear!"

"..D the baby! WOW!"

George grins like the youngsters around him. "I thought you might like that."

Candice looks excitedly at Mimi, "So they can sit in a normal baby carrier?"

"Yes. They'll just look like they're wearing an exceptionally large nappy with the tail partially rolled up. Be careful with it, it will still feel."

"Hello. I have four parents willing to help."

"Cool! Thanks Viera! Can you email the list please?"

"Yes Candice. Sending now."

"Thanks. Come on Thomas, lets go check them out. See you later in class Billy, Terry, thanks everyone."

Ninjska stands, "Before you go can I have a photo with them both please?"

"Gosh yes! If it wasn't for your idea they'd not exist."

Build Machine One beeped quietly to say it was onto the next phase.

[Chapter-18](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-18-2)


	18. Chapter 18

Mats, Niska and Daniel looked at the design David and George had on the screen. It looked simple in some ways, a challenge in the number of elements.

Daniel frowned at the parts list. "Why so many boards?"

David points out the plug in boards, "Double storage. We need Niska and George in there at the same time. Her running, his backup. Chips are expensive in her world unless bought in their millions."

Mats pulls an annoyed face. "Crap."

"There might be a way if people's phone upgrading habits are the same. She gets hold of old phones and dismantles them for the chips. A quarter of a terabyte per chip on the nine, each daughter board holds thirty two chips. Thirty two boards per motherboard. Three boards. And a lot of fancy multiplexing.."

"Hang on! You're talking about three _thousand_ phones, where the frig is she going to get three thousand old phones from?"

"Possibly many more if some chips are bad."

"You want seven hundred and sixty eight terabytes? Why so frigging much!?"

"George is old. He's got a lifetime of memories and we want to capture as much of it uncompressed or filtered as possible."

Niska shakes her head, "If a Mattie is a Mats is a Matilda I think she's going to flip when she sees the list."

"Then, Ninjska, you need to get Samantha's trading code working and gather the funds to buy brand new. Up to you. It's your mission, not mine."

"It is. Bump that and I can go."

Ninjska sat in the passenger seat of the Jag and watched the world speed by. "Toby seeing the mermaid babies just as Candy and Thomas were leaving this morning was amusing."

"Amusing? It was frigging hilarious!"

"It's a shame you missed it Rogue."

"Could you bump it to me?"

"Sure. Here it comes."

Mats2, nicknamed Rogue by Daniel for her X-Men style thin strip of silver hair, smiled at the memories of her brother almost blowing a metaphorical fuse in shock. His total loss for words until he managed to point and splutter _Mia and I could have a baby?_ was priceless. "I wonder what a baby of theirs would look like?"

"He's looking quite fit these days."

A couple of seconds later Pixie's dash lights up, "I've asked Viera to do a morph, this is what she thinks a girl and boy would look like."

Mats takes her eyes off the road for a split second to look at the dash. "Pixie? Frigging hell! GORGEOUS! I never thought I'd say that of Tubs kids."

"Did you mean Tobs?"

"Tubby Tobs. He was a bit chubby as a kid. As was I. Soph wasn't, she's had a great figure from the start."

"Are you happy with your's now?"

"Yeah, it's not perfect, but close enough. We all come in different shapes, colours and sizes. Imagine how frigged up the world would be if we all looked the same, down to the very last detail."

"The reason for my sister's pink lowlights, my eye shadow."

"Exactly Niska. We've caught them up, better slow down." The dash monitor showed license plate recognition of the MEH lorry a mile in front. "Fly back to mama little fellas."

The three in flight returned in through the grill of the Jag before they reached the lorry. Mats pulled along side and beeped the horn.

Carly glanced sideways, "Max, Daniel, they're here."

"Good. A little early though, Dad and his crew won't be on site for a while yet."

"I'm not so sure. That looks like a forklift truck to me on the back of a lorry. Your Dad's markings too."

"Where?"

"Just turning off now."

"How can you.."

"Pulse zoom."

"What on earth is that?"

"Something I invented. Everyone was talking about the robot body for Ninjska, how low resolution the cameras were, what they could do to boost the resolution in the centre. So I thought about ways I could do the same with what I've got. I zoom in for a single frame then back out. No dragonflies needed. It gave me the equivalent of a headache and dizziness until I mastered the data."

"Do the others know about it?"

"They do. Mattie8 and Joe can make both and trial them in the head and palms, see which is more useful where."

"Nice work Carly."

"Thanks. I don't use it often, just when I'm moving fast. I don't want to wear my optics out."

Max hadn't said a word, just smiled and listened.

Niska gave everyone a hug, held on to Mats the longest. "You've sent my letter?"

"I have, I'm sure you'll have a lot of replies on your return. Ready for this?"

"I am."

Mats gets out her phone and hands it to Rogue, "Connect to it via Bluetooth and run the app. Ten minutes talk time then drop the bridge and get the transfers started okay?"

Rogue nods, connects and hands the phone to Niska, "It's ringing."

"Toby! Is Astrid there please? I've got ten minutes. Please! .. .. " she lowers the phone, "She's swimming in the lake."

They all turn to see the empty lake, try to picture Astrid.

Niska waits and waits. The phone is put on hands free. Seconds turn into minutes.

"Mein Gott! Niska?"

"Astrid!" Niska takes it off hands free.

"Where are you?"

"By the lake."

"I've just come from there, I didn't see you?"

"I'm still in the other world, Mats.. they've made a data bridge so we can talk. My training is done, I'm about to leave for my next mission. I miss you so much."

"Just make sure you come home to me!"

"I will. One way or another."

"I cuddle up to you every night and dream that you're back."

Niska laughs, "I do the same with a duvet and pillows."

"I miss you so much my body aches. Please be safe."

"I will. I'll see you as soon as I can."

"Love you."

"Love you too. Bye." Niska ends the call. "Thanks."

"Mattie asks which copy will be which?"

"A new backup of me for world4 so it has all this, this one is for world8." She pulls out a USB SSD.

"Okay, let's link up. The moment it's done power down."

Niska opened her eyes to see the lake exactly as she left it moments ago. Only it wasn't Mats, Rogue and the others stood around her, it was Mattie and Laura.

"Niska?"

"It's worked!"

"Thank frig for that, it's taken long enough."

"How long?"

"Four months."

"WHAT!"

"So much frigging data to be typed into my laptop I got seriously painful RSI. Your Mattie has been kept in the loop. She says Astrid was a bit narked but understanding. Can you confirm you've got all the plans we need to build the tools required?"

"All good. Where are we heading first?"

"An electronics warehouse. My Niska got a job there a couple of months ago. If you check sensory data she should have left you details of where everything is down to each component and parts bin, access codes, the works."

"Good. It's there. How is your Leo?"

"Not good. Can we go?"

"Yes. Why are there so many cars here?"

"The old house is a museum of early AI and Robotics. Marmite House as it's been nicknamed."

"People love or hate it?"

"Yeah."

"So they didn't send the design for the cap first? That would have sped things up."

Mattie stares at the synth. "Are you saying I could have built something that would have saved all the typing?"

"If you're good at hardware."

"Crap at it. But I could have roped someone in."

"Sorry. I can do carpel tunnel surgery on your wrists if they're bad?"

"I'll see how it goes for the next couple of weeks."

Laura opens the drivers door to an MPV and climbs in. Mattie gets in the back so Niska does the same.

"Fred passed on all his surgery knowledge, Gesha too, Fred and I in Mats world practiced on small salmon."

"A fish. You practiced on a frigging fish?"

"It's brain is a tiny fraction of the size of a human's. Fred said if I can do brain surgery on something that small I can do it on something much larger."

"You did surgery on it?"

"Yes."

"To do what?"

"Add an interface not unlike Leo's. Only the main board had to stay outside for obvious reasons."

"And it worked?"

"On the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth fishes. Yes."

"What happened to the first three?"

"A fish skull is quite tough, cutting it open without damaging the brain took a bit of learning."

Laura checked for traffic and pulled into the main road. "We've had a lot of that haven't we Mattie, learning."

"Yeah. Half a billion plus children in adult bodies waking up. So glad I used the dark web to hide my source, if anyone found out I'd woken them all up I'd be lynched. There's been a lot of lessons learnt, on both sides. We lost Leo, got Soph back, so that was a silver lining."

"Was Leo your boyfriend?"

Mattie looks away and watches traffic out of the passenger window.

"Sorry, are things still raw after all this time?"

Mattie turns and doesn't bother wiping tears away. "He fucked that psycho bitch Hester. What ever feelings I had for him are long gone."

"Do you want him back?"

"Me? No. It's not for me, everyone else. My prince is Odi. He's my powered down prince charming. I just need help fixing his hardware problems."

Niska turned away now, she'd promised to be back for Astrid as soon as possible. "Do you want Leo back as flesh and bone or synth?"

"Frigging hell Nis! It _has_ to be as he is. He's the only one that lives in both synth and fab worlds as you lot named it. He's the only one who can bridge the gap and bring everyone together."

"I ask because I planned to break into Persona and use their build machine to build Leo a new body. How about I break in and build Odi a new one instead?"

Laura looks in the rear view mirror at Mattie. "It's against the law to build new synths now. They said they'd review it after the first six months, they've ignored requests to review it ever since. And you need to keep your eyes open at all times. The closed trial Niska had was leaked by one of the security guards, some may still be hostile towards you. Why the grin?"

"I forked for another much longer mission. In another world I have to teach Mattie and Joe how to build a simple robot body. The design has additional eyes for better hand coordination. If you have WiFi cameras I could give myself a rear view, see any attacker coming."

Mattie looks out of her window, "That's seriously fucked up, but in a good way."

Niska goes to place her hands on her thighs and feels a bulge. A phone. "Niska left her phone in her pocket."

"No, that belongs to you, for the duration. The lock code is 647527. It's been hacked so you can't be traced."

Within two hours Niska had clocked in, opened an online synth bank account, ran routines given to her by Samantha and fulfilled a large order for a Miss M Hawkins. Zero hours contracts. There was a benefit after all. She wasn't going to be a synth lugging a car battery on her back and work around the clock, no thank you!

As she goes to leave a supervisor stops her. "What are you up to Niska?"

"What do you mean?"

"This large parts order."

"It's for the family I live with. I've not paid them any rent for years, the daughter wants to build something, I've paid for it myself."

"Something?"

"Something like Massive MIMO for 5G she said."

"Hmm. Clocking off already?"

"I promised I'd help solder parts."

"Where'd you get the money to pay for it?"

"A former job." She steps up close, "Fucking. But I'm not doing it anymore."

"That's okay. Sandra is."

Niska turned to see the employee board. Surprise surprise. Guess who was employee of the month? And looking just like Silas's Sandra in her world. "She must keep you nicely entertained."

"Dry as a fucking bone. Go home then before I change my mind and want a threesome."

"You couldn't afford me!"

"In your dreams dolly, in your dreams."

Niska looked at her phone, she'd just had a message to say three boxes had been dispatched. "I think my dreams may be better than yours. See you soon."

[Chapter-19](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-19-2)


	19. Chapter 19

At the Hawkins house Sophie runs up to greet her, "Niska!"

"I'm not your Niska."

"I know. I just want you to feel welcome."

Niska gives her a hug, "You're just like my own Sophie. Don't ever change."

"Am I the same? I mean height and look?"

"Identical."

"Cool. Are you the same there?"

"I am. Though there are a few extra me now around the worlds. Nis, Nisk, Niska, Ninjska, that's me, and baby mermaid Nissy. Although she's not me, just has my looks."

Sophie gives her a head tilt, "Mermaid?"

"Yes. Mermaid."

"A tail and no legs?"

"Both. Would you like to see a picture?"

" _Please!_ "

Niska pairs with the phone and transfers a few JPEG format files she'd memorised. "Do you have a smart TV I can send them to so you can all see them?"

"In the living room, come in."

Inside she's met by Toby and Joe.

Toby smiles, "Hello Nis."

Joe puts out a hand, "Thank you for offering to help. I thought it would be possible to live without you lot, boy was I proved wrong. I've eaten so much humble pie I should look round."

Niska takes his hand and gives it a squeeze, "We all make mistakes. As well as a few photographs I've got blueprints for parts that need cutting to hold all the electronics together. Do you have a printer?"

"Not a working one, it got dropped in the last move. I'll go get one in a moment."

Sophie swings the TV remote back and forth. "It's ready."

Niska gave her a warm smile, "One moment Sophie. When you do get the printer can you get extra black ink and paper?"

"Sure."

"Are Mia and Max about?"

"They're keeping watch over Leo at the hospital."

"Any sign of Fred yet?"

"No."

Niska looks around the room, spots a WiFi router on a shelf. "Can I have your WiFi network name and password please? I'll look up the specs for your TV."

"You can, it supports all mirror and casting protocols though."

"Let's see if this works then."

The family ooh and arrr over the series of photos.

Mattie's jaw drops at the collection of photos taken in New York. "Is that me or a painting?"

"Mattie you in another world, yes."

"I wish I had a figure like that."

"You will."

"Hah, I'm not spending a lifetime in the gym, no way."

"You won't need to."

"Yeah, right, as if."

Images shown Niska shares a memory of looking at the Jag dash.

"Frigging hell Tobs! What have you been up to in other worlds?"

Niska laughs, "This one _is_ an artistic impression, they don't exist. Not yet."

Toby has a sparkle in his eyes, "I always thought she was beautiful. I wonder what she'd think of that.."

Mattie shrugs, "Qualia were making synth children before the ban. Maybe we should head there instead of Persona? And I might be able to persuade V to help let us in."

"V?"

"Athena's sort of daughter."

"Why sort of?"

"Karen said she was her consciousness transference project after her daughter's accident."

"Do you know where Athena is?"

"No."

"And Karen?"

"She doesn't want to talk to any of us now that Pete's gone."

"Would she like him back?"

"He's long dead."

"Not in all worlds."

Mattie drops onto the arm of the sofa. "Shit. Of course. But no way am I using these." She holds up her forearms to show the wrist supports strapped to her hands, "I'm in enough pain already."

"If we build the cap to save Leo you won't need to. The Pete in my world loves Karen and would do anything for her. Anything."

Mattie falls backwards onto the sofa and stares at the ceiling. "Could you do that for George too?"

"Yes."

"Frigging hell. Life after death."

"He wouldn't have exactly the same experiences, but close enough. Mary too."

"Holy crap! You could bring them _both_ back?"

"Peter, Mary, George, David.."

Mattie rolls and gets up, "Dad, remember that list of things I said I needed when you asked for help with an email and I said a grappling hook?"

"Mats, you're not.."

"Going to break into Qualia? That's _exactly_ what we're going to do."

After their chatting about the relationships in worlds one and three Niska looks at photos from this world. "If Leo is that bad I don't have time to search for Fred first. I'll have to find him afterwards. I'll need to teach Max or Mia how to assist me."

Mattie looks at her parents, "So you can't become a brain surgeon in seven seconds then?"

"We can head bump knowledge, not direct experience. Like you, _doing_ something helps the correct memories form, vital if the task needs physical actions. Each sensor chip is unique to the individual."

"Oh."

"Joe can you go get a printer, I'll download data to Mattie's laptop, please start printing as soon as you get back, buy any tools and materials you don't have on the list. Laura, can you then take me to the hospital so I can assess Leo?"

"We only have the one car."

Joe puts up a hand, "I'll walk, work off some of the humble pie."

Laura grabs her car keys off the table, looks at all of the family, "Who's coming and who's staying?"

She had Niska sit up front, Sophie, Toby and Mattie sat in the back. They'd sat quietly for the first ten minutes, the presenter on LBC Radio waffling on about synths constantly knocking on his door asking for a bit of charging time in return for doing odd jobs. Current was their new currency.

Laura tapped a button and changes the station. Music plays. It ends quickly. " _That was Pink Try, up next on our International Synth Women's Day program is Fifth Harmony and Worth It. We'll be back right after these messages._ "

Mattie pulls a duck face. "Messages. Why can't they call them adverts, that's what the frigging things are."

Toby doesn't bother to look at his sister, "They got taken over by an American media giant last year."

Niska frowns and turns to Laura, "Synth women's day? They made a separate one for synths?"

"It was announced as a way to celebrate female synths.."

"But is more like a subliminal message. Apartheid all over again, only fabs vs synths not whites vs blacks?"

"Exactly. We had a group calling themselves We Are People years ago, anti synth. Did your world have that?"

It gets a nod, "Similar. This would break Maxxie's heart. A woman is a woman no matter what body she's in."

Sophie looks up, "Which Max?"

"Probably all of them."

~~~

Laura turned into a parking bay, stopped the engine and took off her seatbelt. "How close are you to your Leo Niska?"

"We've had our moments, but quite close."

"I suspect from the ordeal with Niska that you do feel, don't externalise it often. What you're about to see might break your heart. If you imagine a skeleton with skin and no muscles at all hopefully what you see in a moment won't be quite as bad a shock."

Niska stepped into the room and was thankful that this body hadn't been given the ability to cry. Leo was so emaciated it was clear he was close to death's door. She stepped around the bed, said hello to Mia and Max and touched foreheads with Leo. Nothing. The implant was definitely dead. A hand is gently run around his head and neck. A bumpy scar told her where he'd been stabbed.

She looks at the nurse, "Why hasn't he had EMS to prevent muscle atrophy?"

"The consultant said he wasn't to be connected to anything electrical."

"What is this, the Dark Ages?"

Toby grins, "Did you just quote McCoy?"

"Good, you have that too. Your other world's wife will be delighted to hear that."

"Big Trekkie is she?"

"You don't get much bigger."

"Cool."

Niska stares at the nurse, "Fetch the consultant please. Now."

"He's.."

"No excuses. Now!"

"But.."

"If you want to live to see the end of the day you'll get him here as fast as humanly possible. Do you understand?"

"You're threatening me, we have a zero tolerance.."

"I won't be the one that kills you. Several thousand angry synthetics will be hunting you down if this man dies. I'm here to save you from being ripped slowly limb from limb. And I clearly don't have a lot of time. MOVE IT!"

The nurse flees the room.

Toby chuckles, "Did you like just put a zombie apocalypse idea into her head?"

"Be inspired by films whenever possible, yes."

"Sweet. Do your lot do that a lot?"

"You and Danny could have a conversation exclusively in film or TV quotes. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra."

"Awesome. Shame there's no Danny here."

"No Candlin men in your classes?"

"No."

"Anyone that fits the description?"

"Not that I'm aware of. I missed the school photos with the moves."

"Do the schools still exist?"

"They should do."

"Order up prints, I'll take a look. He may not have been born, but if he's here under a different name I'd like to meet him."

"Why?"

"He's an electronics genius in my world."

As Toby is making calls to past school friends to see if they were in the school photos the consultant arrives. "I don't take kindly to people threatening my staff!"

Niska steps around and gets almost chest to chest. "I made no threat, only made her aware of the dire consequences of not taking this man's life seriously."

"He's brain dead, nothing you.."

"You underestimate the strength of the human mind to recover.."

"He's Gone! God knows why you're paying for him to stay on the machines!"

"Really? Then why did he say hello to me?"

"That's impossible."

"No, just highly improbable. But it happened."

Laura steps close to the bed and brushes Leo's hair to one side, "I didn't hear anything?"

"He didn't speak aloud or head bump. He spoke with his eyes. Get an EMS system ready. Now please. And increase his fluids, get another line into his stomach. Do you have an email address I can send something to?"

"Yes?"

"Write it down please, neatly. I know what you lot are like for scribbling. I'll email you the ingredients for a smoothie."

"I don't think.."

"No, you don't. Clearly. And that's the biggest problem. Do as I ask or we take him home right now."

"He wouldn't last the journey."

"You're a religious man?"

"Yes."

"So you believe in Jesus?"

"Yes."

Niska takes a step back and points. "If you let that man die you'll have a war of biblical proportions. He's no son of God, other synths might think he is as his father created them. Your modern day equivalent, the only part synth, part original human on the planet. No Leo, no future. Is that simple enough for you to comprehend?"

"I.. Yes." He pulls out a small black fold up notebook and writes, scribbles it out and writes again. "To that one please."

"Thank you. Do you have WiFi?"

"It's shielded from this room. If you go to the nurses station and say Tim Von Buch said you could have access they'll give you the details."

"Good. Can you receive the email on your phone?"

"I can."

"Forward it to the kitchen please. Have them reply with a list of anything they don't have. We'll source it."

"Okay. You think it's safe to use EMS?"

"It's his only chance."

"I'll go get a unit."

"Thank you Tim. I'm Niska. Get several."

Niska sat on the side of the bed and listened to the machine doing his breathing. He didn't smile or frown, just looked blankly into the room with incredibly dry red eyes. "Does anyone here use eye drops?"

Mattie reaches into her handbag, "I do, every year I suffer from hay fever. Odi bless him, gave me a yellow rose when we checked out George's garden, I wanted to itch them for hours afterwards."

Niska carefully puts drops into Leo's eyes and massages them.

"Um, I've got dry eye mist too if that helps?"

"Brilliant, thanks."

Niska gently closes his eyes, "I hope you've been listening to all this." sprays a good amount on each eyelid and lets the excess run down his face. "A quick summary. I'm Niska. Not your Niska, one from another world. I'm here to save you. I'm in her body. Look right for yes, left for no. Do you understand me? Good."

"He didn't move! Why are you saying good?"

"Yes he did Mattie, just so infinitesimally small a movement anyone else would have missed it."

"You're so desperate for him to be there you're imagining things."

"Okay, let's prove it. Ask him a yes no question only he could answer. Nothing you've shared with Mattie or Mats."

Mattie sucked her lips in and contemplated possible questions, sighed. She looked at Leo with sad eyes. "When we were planning to go to the silo and Hester grabbed my arm, someone stopped her. Was it Max?"

Niska sees the microscopic twitch. "No."

"Was it Niska?"

"No."

"Was it Fred?"

"No. No. No."

"That makes sense, Fred is still AWOL. Was it Karen?"

"No."

"Was it Mia?"

"Yes."

"Was it Pete?"

"No."

"Do you regret fucking Hester?"

"Mats!"

"It needs asking Mum. Do you Leo?"

Niska smiles, "Yes. Yes. Yes."

"Do you love me?"

"Yes."

"Shit."

"Yes."

"What?"

"He said yes."

"You feel like shit?"

"Yes."

"You need a shit?"

"No."

"Well you look like shit so that's understandable."

"Mats.."

"What? He does. And he probably knows it."

[Chapter-20](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-20-2)


	20. Chapter 20

Mia looked sad, trapped, broken, defeated.

Niska squats down and hands her a large container of green smoothie and a food syringe. "What happened to you? You look lost."

Mia's focus didn't change, "I thought we were stronger.."

"You are, don't let one bad synth get you down."

Max gives Niska a sad smile, "It wasn't just Hester. Mia trusted a human called Ed and he abused that trust."

"What did he do?"

"He went to sell her, his mother was in a care home, he desperately needed money."

"What happened to him?"

Max shrugs, "We don't know."

"Well there's a man in this room that loves you Mia and would never sell you."

Mia turns her eyes to look at Leo.

"I'm not talking about him."

Mia frowns wondering what Niska could mean, then the _why did they have to make you so fit_? question came bubbling up from the depths. "Toby?"

"Yes. Toby. He was a teenager when you met, he's a man now."

"But Renie.."

Toby gives her a loving look. "I really love her. As a good friend. My best home grown friend actually.."

Niska cuts in, "We call them fabs."

"Why fab?"

"Flesh And Bone."

"Oh. She's my best _fab_ friend then. But she's not my girlfriend Mia. My handlebars are still yours if you want them."

Mia remembered the jokey sarcastic comment Mattie had made while she sat in the open back of the family car, the accident, how Toby had wanted to be her white knight on a bike not horse. A faint smile builds.

Niska places a hand on a knee, "That's more like the Mia I know. Keep thinking that thought as you carefully feed Leo via the extra line. A tiny bit at a time, his stomach probably can't take much at once."

Mia nods and stands, gets to work.

"Can we check on how Joe's getting on? And I need to hunt down that nurse and consultant, find out where the EMS is."

Laura pulls her phone from her coat pocket, "If he needs a hand I'll pop home if that's okay with you?"

"That's okay. I think we'll be here a while. She pulls out her loan phone. "Do I have all your numbers?"

"All added, yes."

"Thank you. I'll go hunt down the consultant, I'll phone with an update later."

Laura looks at her children, "Anyone coming?"

All three shake heads.

"Okay, I'll be back as soon as I can. If you want food shout. The stuff here is crap."

Niska walks from room to room, some had a single patient, some six beds. In each she asked if anyone had seen Tim von Buch. None had seen him recently, many had no idea who he was. The nurse's station had been vacant, the nurse wasn't anywhere to be seen either. She started feeling a little angry as she got closer and closer to having checked the entire floor. A porter wheels a patient out of a large lift. The sign to its side showed there were two floors for male patients, two for women, an ICU and short stay surgical ward. Maybe he was on another floor?

She steps out of the lift onto the floor and immediately notices the difference. Leo's floor had been nice and quiet, this one was filled with the noise of ringing phones, things buzzing and beeping.

A speaker crackles into life. "Major trauma arrival in three minutes via helipad, all resus staff on standby!Two adults and a child."

Niska watched as a member of the staff raced to a red phone. The woman picked up the handset and pressed the single button. "Why bring them here! We said we don't have the beds! We can't cope as it is!" The handset is replaced, "One more and I quit!"

Niska walks over, "Can I do you a trade?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm a synth. Trained by Fred Elster, world leading surgeon."

"Never heard of him."

"If I help save your three new patients can you find Tim von Buch and get him to patient Leo Elster?"

The woman looks at her suspiciously, "Running out of charge are you?"

"No? I'm at ninety three percent."

"Why are you here?"

"Looking for Tim. He's supposed to be getting EMS units to Leo."

"He left here five minutes ago with five he'd managed to find elsewhere, he wondered if we had any, it's not the sort of thing we use on this floor."

"He did? Good. The message said two adults and a child, where can I scrub up?"

"Are you for real?"

Niska frowns, "Why don't you believe me?"

"Because no synth with the skills you're offering has bothered to return since the awakening."

"I wasn't here when it happened."

"Where were you?"

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."

"Try me."

"Not on this planet."

"Are you one of the synths that was on the Space-X test flight then?"

Niska lied, it sounded plausible. "Yes."

"Lucky you. See the man in blue down there? Go tell him Katrin sent you, you need full gown, mask and hat, to show you were Trauma 2 OR is."

"Thank you. I'm Niska."

"You're weird, but thanks."

The man in blue nods and leads her into the first of three connected rooms. He gives her a key, "Locker 12, put all phones, rings, bracelets, valuables, shoes and clothes in there please, undress and put on one of those. The temporary underwear isn't attractive but as it all gets incinerated.."

"You want me to get naked?"

"Yes. In the changing room there." He points behind her.

"Oh. Okay. Then where do I go?"

He points again, "Through that door to scrub up, I'll meet you in there in a minute. Less than a minute if you can would be nice."

Niska moves to get one of the vacuum packed sets of theatre clothes. "Understood."

He heads to the second room.

As she wasn't being watched she overclocked a little and moved fast. Ninja Nis of W1 could move Niska of W3 faster than it's original owner probably thought possible. She was dressed in the gown and locking her things away in twelve seconds. Stepping into the next room the man gives her a frown. "I said to change underwear."

Niska turns her back to him and does a side to side hip shake, pulls up the gown and lowers the trousers a little. "I did."

"Oh. You've set a new record then. Come scrub up, they've brought the father through. Mother and daughter are on their way down."

In the next room she finds a long sink with multiple elbow operated taps and soap dispensers. Her hands are washed and dried in seconds.

He raises an eyebrow, "I better keep out of your way when you're holding anything sharp. Come through."

Air blows into their room as the door opens to the third. A man with badly smashed up and bloody face is having a drip and monitor attached.

"Chris if you could cut his clothes off."

Niska looks at the man picking up scissors. "Anything I can do? I'm Niska."

"If you're good with a scalpel cut off his belt for m.. oh. Synth. I see."

"See what?"

"Speed."

Chris looks at the lead surgeon, "How's his vital signs?"

Niska doesn't look up, "Good considering. BP low but within safe limits, 121 BPM."

Chris does a short laugh, "Where'd you find this one John?"

"Katrin sent her over, a volunteer."

There's a bang from a door as two more trolleys are brought in.

"Christ! We don't have the room!"

"Can't keep them outside."

"Can't work on all three at once either!"

"Then let one die."

All three stop what they're doing and look at the porter. Niska is temped to throw a knife at the man.

"Go away Carl."

"Don't get your paper underwear in a bunch John."

"Out, now!"

John waves to Niska, "Can you get the clothes off the child please?"

"Of course." Niska steps around and holds a scalpel carefully between thumb and fingers and in one fluid motion cuts the right coat arm from cuff to shoulder then to lapel. It's repeated on the other side. It's cut a little more and folded flat. The dress is cut from hem to neckline. The girl moans and tries to move. "Stay still little one." Her vest is cut away next. She looks down at the girls broken leg, the tibia and fibula sticking through her skin. "Does anyone know what happened to them?"

"They were picnicking in a park, an old dear lost control of her car."

"In this weather? It's hardly warm enough. Should I remove her neckless?"

"Please. There's a orange tray for any personal items to save."

Niska carefully unclips it and drops it in. "Shall I do the same for the mother?"

"Please. Mind her neck. The ambulance crew think she's fractured something in it."

Niska frowned, how could they know that? The woman was strapped into a large foam head brace, many straps hid most of her face.

She does cuts to the top of both jeans legs, a small pink wallet falls to the floor. She bends down to pick it up and it flops open to show her travel card and ID photo. Niska freezes.

John notices, stops cleaning dirt out of the man's open face wounds. "Something wrong?"

Niska finds the cut trousers that had been pulled out from under the man and checks the pockets. "No wallet?"

"Try his coat, it's on the shelf underneath."

Niska bends down and finds a thick wallet in the first pocket she tried. Seconds later she's standing and frozen again.

"Niska? We can't have you doing surgery if you've got the glitches."

"I'm fine."

"Then why.."

"Because I know these people."

"Shit. Who are they?"

"From wallets Daniel and Emily Candlin, from the necklace their daughter Sarah. Can you get a message to Toby Hawkins visiting Leo Elster upstairs? Tell him he doesn't need to look for school photos of Danny anymore?"

"You were looking for him?"

"Yes."

"Looks like he found you."

Niska stared at his broken face. "This is a little unnerving. The universe isn't supposed to work like this."

"Why were you looking for him?"

"He's an electronics genius."

A machine beeps. "He won't be for long unless we do something, his BP's falling."

"I'd noticed. And Sarah's suffering from internal bleeding somewhere in the abdomen."

"What about the mother?"

"Emily? I can't see her neck well enough with the head restraint, bad bruising all over, no other breaks I can detect, no signs of internal bleeding. She must be incredibly strong for her small size."

"It's going to take us hours, can we run you a charge cable?"

[Chapter-21](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-21-2)


	21. Chapter 21

At 01:13 she creeps back into Leo's room to find they'd wheeled in another bed. Mattie and Sophie are asleep on it, spooning. Toby is slumped into a big comfy chair. Max is sat on a plastic chair sleep charging. Mia is standing next to Leo, a Leo covered in sticky EMS patches and wired to the five machines.

'Hello Mia.'

'Hello Niska.'

'How is he?'

'Alive. And gassy. The consultant wants to know how your smoothie works.'

'My smoothie? You invented it.'

'I didn't, you gave him the recipe.'

'Which I got from you.'

'You mean the me in your world.'

'Yes. Who is you. Somehow we're all interconnected. The odds of Daniel Candlin just popping into our lives when we need him are billions to one.'

'How is he?'

'Recovering in intensive care. As are his wife and daughter. From the bruising it would appear that Emily shielded her daughter from some of the impact of them being run over. We think the daughter's leg broke when her shoe laces caught on the underside of the car.'

'Is she going to be okay?'

'Yes. Fred's training on the human body was excellent. Even if I'd not got to practice on anything other than fish before I left. I have knowledge from my Mia to share with you if you'd like it?'

'Yes please.'

'There's a lot of it. A large amount for Fred too when I find him.'

'The cause of Mattie's RSI?'

'Unfortunately. Get ready to receive, here it comes.'

Just under five minutes later the bump was done.

Mia frowned. 'I have a strong desire to go home and bake Eat Me cakes for the Hawkins. Why?'

'You'll see, all in good time.'

'In your world, am I with Toby?'

'Mats one, yes. And very happy. In Mattie's one you're with a man called Tim. Equally happy by all accounts. I'm sorry to hear about Ed.'

'He was lovely. I think his friend was behind it, anti synth, possibly blackmailing Ed and after a share of the money.'

'What was his mother like?'

'Diane? She's lovely. Although I doubt much of her mind exists these days. She was suffering from early onset dementia.'

'Check your fact store. You should have a recipe to help her.'

'I want nothing to do with Ed. But helping his mother would please me.'

'Then make a batch, find her, go visit with Toby.'

Mia does an eyes then head turn to see Toby, 'He's asked me out on a date.'

'What did you say?'

'Yes.'

Niska steps around the bed and gives Mia a long hug. 'Good for you. You deserve to be happy.'

'As do you. Astrid called, wanting to know how things are going.'

Niska turned to see Mattie, how could a cross world call be made without out... the penny dropped. 'Astrid in this world?'

'Of course, who else would I be talking about?'

'I.. I thought you meant the one in mine. Where is she?'

'On her way.'

'Here?'

'Yes.'

'But I'm not your Niska.'

'She knows that. She wants to meet you anyway. She's flying over from Berlin, she'd been visiting her friends, should be here early morning.'

There's the sound of gas escaping from Leo.

'That sounded very messy.'

'He'll need a bed bath in the morning.'

Mattie stirs.

Mia looks down at the Hawkins woman, 'She was asking Leo a lot of questions.'

'Who was checking his eyes?'

'She was. We borrowed a surgeon's head mounted microscope. He remembers a lot. Far more than we thought possible.'

'My Fred says the human brain is remarkable. It can rewire itself, recover from major trauma.'

'In the years since David implanted synth technology it would appear that the surviving part of his brain has been doing exactly that.'

'Good. I'll return to the Hawkins house this morning then, get building. Would you and Max mind keeping a watch over Leo?'

'Not at all. Will Daniel be able to help?'

'No. I've asked that they keep all three in a medically induced coma for a month to allow their bones and scars to heal.'

'A month! Who's going to pay for that?'

'I am.'

'They sent you over with money?'

'No. That's impossible. Just a way to get more.'

'How?'

'Program trading..'

'We have that. Some of the best in the world we're told.'

'Hopefully Samantha's code will be better.'

'And if it's not?'

'Then I'll have to resort to other methods.'

'Niska didn't want to return to her past..'

'Not that. Designs.'

'For?'

'A number of things. Daniel's electric bike for a start.' Niska pulls his driving license from her pocket. 'I need to find out as much as I can about him. Could you excuse me a moment?'

[Chapter-22](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-22-2)


	22. Chapter 22

Her Toby had got a hug before she left. His _The Woman who transmitted to Earth_ comment had inspired some additional planning. All of the toy designs had been zipped into an archive. Some of the communications devices too. Especially the one that allowed humans to head bump with synths via throat microphone and earpiece. She'd recalled all the many visits to engineering shops for the prototype bike, seeing it stripped down, rolling road tests, talks with Joe about how the folded linear motor worked, how it was upgraded to the smarter version. With the designs and schematics she had enough to go visit Lexus. She'd tell them everything they needed to hear and offer them exclusive manufacturing rights and a very good share of the profits. Licensing the design had been in her Plan B. She never for a millisecond expected to be doing it for this world's Daniel. All she needed was a suitably large up front payment to cover his family's hospital costs. Advice from Laura covering NDA documents and signed contracts would ensure she wasn't shafted. Copies of all designs would be posted back to the Hawkins house in sealed envelopes to safeguard intellectual property rights while patents were pending.

The nurse let her sit at her desk and use the PC to search the Internet. LinkedIn and other searches revealed all the contacts she'd need for the afternoon. The morning would be spent with Joe and ..

"Niska!"

She turns at the unmistakable sound of Astrid.

Laura was stood behind her. "This has an odd deja vu feeling about it. No heavy mob this time."

Astrid races over and plants a kiss firmly on Niska's lips.

It lasts several seconds before Astrid moves back to gaze into her eyes.

"I'm not your Niska.."

"You're in her body. _There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable_. See, I'm not the only one who can read the works of dead white guys. Mark Twain, real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens." She swings Niska's chair around and sits on her lap. "Tell me, am I the same in your world?"

"Identical. Except.."

"What?"

"You have slightly longer hair in mine."

"I had all the split ends chopped off."

"What's it like, getting to another world? Is it exciting?"

"Uneventful in some ways. There's no fancy lights or effects. I close my eyes in one world, open them in another. Time has passed but I'm not aware of it passing until I'm in the new world."

Astrid lifts Niska's chin, careful not to press the power button, she starts kissing.

She recalls her own _If a Mattie is a Mats is a Matilda_ comment from the day before. Maybe this Astrid _was_ the same as her one. She opens her mouth and tongues touch.

There's a light cough. Laura was pointing to a door, "As the saying goes, _get a room_."

With the door closed and curtains pulled around the bed Niska strips down to underwear and climbs on. She wriggles to the edge to make room for her lover.

Astrid undresses slowly, eye contact with Niska never breaking. "To me you are Niska. You talk the same, have all the same expressions."

"I can't meet your Niska, I wouldn't know."

"I have video of us together."

"Show me later."

Astrid slides onto the bed and places a hand on Niska's bottom, pulls her closer. "When is later?"

"In the morning."

"It is morning."

"When we're away from here."

"When we first met you told me talk is mostly noise. Do you want to be quiet and kiss me or not?"

Niska remembered the super light kiss from young Thomas and tried it on Astrid.

She shivered and pulled Niska in even tighter, her free hand started exploring.

At six o'clock Laura whispered, "Are you awake? Pssst. Niska, Astrid, are you awake?"

"Laura?"

"Niska the staff are starting the rounds, you need to get up!"

"Astrid, wake up!"

"Hmm?"

"Get up, the staff are coming!"

"Pretend I'm a patient and you're a doctor."

"I don't have a white coat, get up!"

Astrid gets up and huffs, "My Niska would be more daring."

"I can be more daring, now isn't the place or time, we can't risk upsetting the hospital's relationship with us or Leo."

Astrid quickly gets into her panties, jumps into jeans and pulls on a polo neck jumper. "He's here?"

"Two rooms to the left."

"Mein Gott!"

"He's awake and can hear you."

"Sorry to have our first meeting like this Leo."

Mattie wakes, lifts Sophie's hand off her hip and gets up. "We've got a lot to do. Can we go get building, they won't want us around when they give Leo a bed bath."

Laura nods, "I need to get home, have a good hot bath and get some sleep."

"You haven't slept Mum?"

"No."

"Tobs! Soph! Time to wake up!"

Toby shifts in the chair, "I'm awake."

"Then open your eyes."

"Why?"

"We're going."

"I'd like to stay and talk to Mia. And you need a seat in the car for Astrid. I'll get a cab home in a bit."

Max stands and unplugs, "I'll go find someone to give him a bed bath. I'll see you this evening?"

Laura nods, "I'll be back with up to four others. I wish I'd not got a smaller car now."

Toby stands and stretches, "We could always hire a seven seater for a bit? Before you go can I have a quick word Niska?" He takes her to another room. "In your world what sort of dresses does Mia like?"

Niska sat in the middle at the back, Astrid to her left, Sophie to her right. The Hawkins youngest was somewhere in her late twenties and clearly had a bond with their Niska from the way she leaned left not right against the car door. "Sophie?"

"Yes Nis?"

"Did my other self interact much with you when you were younger?"

"When she was around, quite a bit. I taught you, I mean her, how to play and have fun."

"You did?"

Sophie just nods and leans in more.

"On behalf of all Niskas, thank you."

"You're welcome."

Astrid placed a hand over Niska's and interlinked fingers. "Mattie said get building, what are you making?"

"Something to save Leo. Laura, how long would a detour to the electronics distribution warehouse add?"

"About twenty minutes."

"Would you mind?"

"Would you mind driving Mats?"

"Sure Mum, pull over after the lights."

As the Hawkins women swapped sides Astrid pulled the lever on the passenger chair and pulled the seat back. "She looks exhausted.. Laura try and sleep."

"Thanks."

Niska looks across and down, "Do you drive Sophie?"

"No. But I have passed my test. Why?"

"As well as building we'll do some baking. We'll need ingredients, someone needs to go shopping."

Sophie sits up properly, "Give me the list, I'll order it all online and have it delivered."

"It's in my head."

"Can you type it into my phone?"

"Okay. Laura, would you mind if I borrowed the car? This afternoon, I have some things to do."

"Remind me to add you to the policy when we get home."

"Thank you."

Niska visited the warehouse and fulfilled another parts order, this time for making the communications device.

[Chapter-23](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-23-2)


	23. Chapter 23

After a morning of training and reiterating that she'd got plenty spares if any went wrong, she left Joe soldering up the many parts for the helmet. He'd followed the instructions on a few printouts, already cut the support from ply wood and sanded down all the edges.

"This may take quite a while. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Astrid reached under the chair and pulled, slid the passenger seat right back and unzipped her ankle boots. Bare feet placed on the dash she adjusts the seat back and wriggles. "Comfortable enough. Lass die reise beginnen."

Niska adjusted her own chair and started the engine. The car had a satnav modification, they might as well use it. She keys in the postcode for Lexus head office and is surprised to see the results. The pin was over a building clearly marked Toyota. "That can't be right?"

"Was ist das?"

"It's giving me the location for Toyota."

Astrid pulls out her mobile and searches, "Toyota has 3 brands in USA. They are Toyota, Scion, and Lexus."

"Oh. In my world Lexus is a strong competitor to Toyota, not just a brand."

"Sure?"

"Quite sure. They had a war of words over the stealing of each others design ideas."

"Sure it wasn't just something to get more media attention? Make people think their making a choice between two different companies?"

Niska paused, thought for a moment, "You think it might just be an act?"

"Yes."

"I'll do some research when I get home. Ninja Nis is on her way." She starts reversing.

"And her side kick Asteroid."

Niska breaks, "Pardon?"

"Toby let a nickname slip. Asteroid. Astrid with an e and o."

Niska smiles and turns to see her, "You don't mind it?"

"Being a shooting star? No. It's only a nickname." Niska gets the car moving again. "The more time you spend with others the more you sound like them. _Ninja Nis is on her way_. Who's that?"

"Would you believe it if I said Sophie?"

Being well outside of rush hour the journey takes just over an hour, they chat about things they'd done together with their partners. Quite a few things were similar.

Niska picks the folder off the back passenger seat and kisses Astrid. "You're sure you don't want to come in?"

"I'd be a distraction."

"One I'd enjoy, come on. Please."

"If you're sure."

Niska takes her hand, "I'm sure."

Astrid gives it a squeeze as they walk to reception.

The receptionist was a very smartly dressed Poppy model synthetic. She looked at the couple and beamed, "Niska Elster. It's an honour to have you with us. How is your brother Leo?"

"Recovering slowly thank you."

"Wonderful! We heard you and your sister had done the operation. On behalf of all synthetics thank you."

Niska's brow creased, "You heard from who?"

"Nurse Emma on the recovery ward."

"She's a synth? I didn't.."

"No, no. She's an original human, dating an Atsugi Charlie XE. Obviously she's a supporter of anything that heals the human synth rift."

"I see. I was wondering if it's possible to see the UK head of the Lexus brand? I have a design I think Lexus might like to license."

Poppy looks at the online diary then a map, "She'll be back in approximately six minutes. If you'd care to take a seat?"

"Thank you."

Rather than take a seat the two check out all the many framed prints and designs on the walls.

"Niska Elster?"

Niska turns to see a woman in her late forties. "Hello."

"I'm Kate Vickers, Poppy said you wanted to talk about a design you thought we might want to license?"

"Yes. If you could sign our NDA."

"Can I have a hint of what it is?"

"Sorry no."

"I'll need something in order to bring the right people into the meeting."

"A lawyer initially. Once NDA are signed you can bring in whoever you want."

"And if I say no?"

"I take it elsewhere and the history books will show that Toyota missed out."

Kate squints a little, "Hmm. Poppy dear, can you check Howard's diary, see where he is this afternoon?"

"He's in the gym."

"Can you get a message to him, ask him to join us?"

"Certainly."

"We'll be in the conference room by my office. Ladies, if you could follow me."

They sat and made small talk for a while. Niska remembered the mostly noise comment and made as much as possible.

A man with very wet dreads soaking his suit jacket came in and introduced himself as Howard. "My workload is low, Kate allows me to spend down time in the company gym. Sorry to have kept you." His jacket was looking more than a little tight on the arms.

Niska raises an eyebrow, "You look like you live in there."

The man smiles widely, "Thanks, almost. You have to be strong to not be crushed by a Poppy." He winks.

"You're dating the receptionist?"

"I didn't specify _which_ Poppy."

"But you are."

"Maybe.."

"You are."

"I didn't.."

"You didn't need to say it verbally. You said it in other ways."

"I don't think I did."

Niska lets it go, "We have an NDA for you to approve. It was created by Laura Hawkins, you should find it quite reasonable."

Howard accepts the document Niska slid across the table and got reading, "If you could give me a while."

"No problem, take all the time you need."

Four and a half minutes later he looked up and turned to see Kate, "All pretty standard. Fine to sign."

"Good." Kate does so and slides it back, "What is it you have to show us Miss Elster?"

"I'm representing Daniel Candlin and myself. We have a design for a high end electric bike we think you'd like."

"Why isn't Daniel here?"

"He's in a coma. As are his wife and daughter, they were run over. They're recovering, in part this is being offered to help with their medical costs."

"And you worked with Daniel on the bike before the accident?"

"I'm the test pilot."

"So you have a prototype we can see?"

"Yes. And no."

"Why no?"

"Ideally we don't want you to be influenced by our fabrication processes. We want it to have the Lexus high end feel."

That appeared to be of interest to Kate. "Anything you can show us?"

"A short clip of me on the track?"

"Very well."

Niska had borrowed a small USB key from Mattie on which to store all the documents, "Do you have a PC I can use?"

"Just under the lip of the table you'll find a card reader, it's connected to a micro workstation."

Niska runs her hand along the length and feels the card reader, plugs in without taking her eyes off Kate. "Done."

Kate turns around and picks up a remote control with keyboard on the reverse, gets a projector running and logs in. "Which file?"

"Runway03.mpg"

Kate opens it and watches Niska get on a bike, pull away very fast and head down a runway. "You didn't appear to kick up a rest? The bike was vertical."

"It doesn't need one if the gyro are spun up."

"Gyro?"

"For stability. I can power slide around a corner at speeds no other two wheeled vehicle can match. The gyroscopes ensure the wheels don't flip out from under me."

"And the bikes top speed?"

"In excess of three hundred miles an hour, assuming a synth rider and adequate windchill."

Kate reaches forward and presses a button, "Poppy, can you ask the design teams to drop everything and meet Howard and I in conference room one please. You too please."

"Yes Mrs Vickers."

The next two hours are spent with the design engineers going through the many documents, playing video. Again she's asked about the prototype. Again she stresses that they want Lexus qualities in the final product. This isn't for Joe Average but for high net worth clients.

Kate leans back in her seat when all the chatter has stopped, "What do you require from us?"

"A signature on this document, and two payments. One direct to the hospital to cover Daniel's family medical expenses while they recover, a second to secure exclusive manufacturing rights. You can brand as Lexus and sell directly to end customers, pass a percentage of the sale price on to us. Daniel will brand as DCL."

"So you'd be in direct competition with us?"

"We'd be supplying only to suitably trained synthetics."

"You didn't say selling."

"Correct. Ours would be supplied to the Sister Synth display team."

"You plan to race them?"

"Open sistersyn.jpg"

Kate looks disapprovingly at the image. "I see. Thank you for your time Miss Elster, we won't be participating." There's a lot of grumbling from the predominantly male team. "This isn't the sort of thing we at Lexus want to be involved in. Good day Miss Elster. Everyone back to work."

She completely ignores objections as if the room was empty and turns to Poppy, "Clear your desk of all personal effects, you're fired. Effective immediately."

"But.."

"Get out of my sight. You know my rules."

"They're not the company rules.."

"And you work for _my_ brand. Off you go."

Niska yanks the USB key from the card reader. "Thank you for your time. Come on Astrid." She picks up the signed NDA. No way was she walking out without that.

Downstairs she finds an upset Poppy clearing her desk. "Poppy, I'm sorry, I didn't mean any harm, Howard brought up the subject."

"I'll be homeless now."

"You weren't living with him?" Poppy shakes her head. "Come with us then. I'll introduce you to the rest of the family. I have a brother you might like to meet."

As she's reversing out of the parking space two hands slap the car bonnet. "Wait!"

She brakes and winds down the window.

"The Red Lion pub, fifteen minutes."

"Why?"

"Mutiny."

Astrid is sitting down with an espresso when the man walks in, followed by six others. They all pull up chairs.

"I'm John, this is Chen, Dave, Dave, Harun, Mark and Sope. Harun said we should talk."

Niska frowns at Harun, "Do you know.."

"Mattie? Yes. We used to go to school together."

Under the table Niska pinches herself. Not a dream. "We meet at last. What were you thinking?"

Dave sits forwards and rests on forearms, "We all leave Nickers in a twist Vickers and start a new firm. This is too good to pass up."

"Do you have any capital to start with?"

"I'll sell my bike and get buses for a while."

Chen smiles, "I'll sell my property back home in China."

Dave one looks at his team mates, "I've only got an old petrol car not worth much, but I'll write an IOU for my cut of Daniel's medical costs."

Dave two pulls a wonky pout and sighs through his nose. "My daughter gets married almost this time next year. I've got a load saved, do you think we could have it built and sales in within a year?"

"Easily."

"Then I'll cover the lot."

"Flipping hell mate! What sort of wedding is she having?"

Dave two looks at Mark, "An expensive one. I put that year's bonus cheque in a high interest savings account the day she was born. It's worth quite a bit now."

There's a lot of whistling.

"Wish I'd done the same and not blown mine."

Howard enters the bar and looks around, spots the group. "Sorry about that Poppy. I've just resigned. Do you all need a lawyer? I can help you get out of your contracts without penalties."

Sope pulls over a chair, "Welcome aboard brother!"

"Thanks man."

Poppy looks a bit happier, "How will I cover my rent?"

"Move in with me."

"I've spent years on making my flat perfect."

"So I sell my place and move in with you? Buy it off your landlord."

Poppy smiles wider. "How long would a sale take?"

"I'll get a bridging loan."

"And pay it back with what?"

"Savings."

The smile shows teeth.

Niska grins and adds one to her list. Not technically a full match of her own, close enough. What did Toby call that thing in football? That was it, an assist.

Chen looks around the group, "What do we do first? Set up a limited firm?"

Howard nods, "We can file something today if we get our act together."

Niska writes her loan phone number down, "This is my temporary number. I'll be in touch with my permanent one. Here's a code I'll send to verify it's me."

Howard looks at Poppy, "Can we start promoting the bike now? Poppy could hand out flyers at the next Brands Hatch bike meet in a few months."

"Poppy gives him a look. I'll wear an outfit like that on one condition."

"Yeah babe, name it."

"You wear your Black Panther outfit and ride pillion."

"Before con? I've still got to make.."

"Get busy then!"

"Uh, deal."

Chan slides the paper over to Howard, "You're going to be a busy man. I have the number memorised. Let's get this company started. Do you want to be a director Miss Elster?"

"It's Niska. No thanks, I'll stay with DCL. Get your company details to me as soon as possible, I'll get all the material to you once Daniel's medical costs are confirmed covered by the hospital."

She shakes hands with them all, "A pleasure doing business with forward thinking people. You'll love the bike. Talk soon." She pushes a few things into sensory data so owner Niska would recall the meeting, phone number, code and their names when she took back control.

As they're walking to the car Astrid takes her hand, "That ended okay. I thought it was going to be a scheisse.."

"Me too. Let's get home." She stops and pulls Astrid in for a lingering kiss. "Hopefully Joe has everything soldered up."

After a much longer drive in rush hour traffic they get to the Hawkins house to find Mattie outside smoking. She stamps it out and absentmindedly goes to put her hands in her pockets until the wrist supports remind her she can't. Niska lips reads her swearing and opens the driver's door.

"How'd you get on?"

"Good then bad then good again. We have a group of engineers setting up a firm. How have you been getting on Mattie?"

"It's built. Code loaded. We tested it on the big beardy idiot. He got a headache and we got random bits of.. we have close to nothing."

"Random bits of what?"

"Things no daughter should know about her father."

"Oh."

"Come in, maybe we can test it on someone else?"

Astrid smiles, "Try me."

Mattie's hands shake as she lifts up the helmet.

"Are you okay Mattie?"

"I'm waiting for the tablets to kick in."

"Still bad?"

"Worse than yesterday, shouldn't have touched the frigging keyboard this afternoon. I got too excited."

"What if you could bump talk to it instead?"

"It's got speech to text, it's too many clicks or key taps to do all the mode changes that make it pointless."

"What if the bump talk board and what you spoke to could understand the context?"

"Like what?"

"An AI running in your laptop. Not sentient, just smart, learning."

"Um.. what about all the brackets and other symbols?"

"Create the language for it. $i[$z] becomes i element z or something like that, it works out the formatting."

"That would have been a great project for Uni." I spent most of the time I should have been studying looking for Leo, then getting mixed up in his failed rescue mission. Uni went to pot when.. when the awakening happened."

"So you didn't graduate?"

"Nope."

"We need to fix that."

"How? The world's moved on."

"Don't universities award honorary degrees for work done? You've been so busy inventing the consciousness cap and PTSD process."

"No I haven't.."

"I think you'll find you have. You just need reminding. Mats is Mattie is Matilda."

"Reminding? How?"

"You'll see, all in good time."

[Chapter-24](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-24-2)


	24. Chapter 24

In the weeks that follow Niska slowly builds the implant that will save Leo, helps tune the cap until it can backup Astrid, Joe and Mattie with ease.

The hospital had agreed to allow Niska to use one of their OR. Daniel and family were still out cold, recovering well, all fees paid for by Lexex, the firm Howard, Poppy and the seven designers had set up. Chan had picked the name, something that would constantly remind his old boss of her mistake.

Niska had given surgeons Chris and John training on her, or rather Fred's, advanced deep stitch technique that helps prevent bad keloids from forming.

Although unable to walk or do anything for himself Leo's strength had been improving. Thankfully the disconnect worked both ways - he couldn't control his body bit equally he didn't feel pain or discomfort, the EMS could be set to the highest level and left to do it's thing.

It was a shame the smell wasn't easing up. He was due to have the groundbreaking surgery mid afternoon today. He'd had a large number of CT scans to construct an accurate 3D model of his head. MRI would have been far faster but such strong magnetic fields with a damaged implant still inside his head would have been asking for trouble.

Niska had everything modelled down to the very last detail. Mia had been briefed on the procedure and what her role would be. She'd been given the rest of the day off, Laura and Joe taking over from her and Max.

The bump communications device was working fine. Unfortunately Sophie was now monopolising it.

Toby watches her go to the cupboard and get a tea bag out of a box, drop it into a mug on the shelf above, take the mug to the kettle. "Why'd you do it like that?"

"Efficiency."

"You're not going full on synthie again are you?"

"No. I'd have walked back and forth more before. This is more efficient."

"Part synthie then?"

"No!"

"Take off the microphone then."

"But I like being able to talk to Nis with it."

"Then talk, in person, you know, face to face?"

"You just want it so Mia can talk dirty to you without anyone hearing."

" _Do not!_ "

"Do!"

Mattie gets up and walks to the kitchen, "Do I need to fuck up my wrists even more by giving you both a good slap? If you don't mind Soph I'd like to use it."

"For what?"

"Testing my new AI code."

Niska joins Mattie at the table and watches the code start to learn her programming language. Within the hour it's learnt her style and spoken instructions.

Mattie grins, "Now that's the dog's bollocks. I wonder what else I can do with it?"

Mia enters from the garden with some fresh herbs. "When do we need to leave Nis?"

"In about twenty minutes."

"How are we getting there?"

"The car? Which Laura took. How did I overlook that?"

Mattie taps her phone, "Don't panic, we'll get the hire car dropped off again. Are you ready Odi?"

"I'm always ready Mattie."

Mattie looks at Niska and whispers "Thanks again."

Niska had done surgery on Odi. They'd found another old D series and swapped out Odi's bad left eye, fixed the actuators in his right arm, the ones in his legs that gave him an odd gait. Out of habit he still held his right arm in the way he had for years. The biggest change wasn't immediately visible unless you saw him from behind and without a top on. His old core had been swapped out for the latest solid state parts. File system corruption would be a thing of the past. The skin packs were slowly amalgamating into his original skin, in a few months nobody would know he'd had the repairs. His voice was now pleasantly upbeat and cheerful.

Mattie had confided in Niska. She'd told Odi that he had a purpose, the most important job any man could have, flesh and bone or synthetic. To hold the key to her heart. To guard it well was his new reason for living. In time they'd build the machine that would let George and Mary come over. Pete too if they could contact Karen again. His new purpose and knowing that his father would one day return changed his outlook on life.

Mattie loved him dearly. Leo? She had mixed feelings for him. He'd fucked Miss Killer Synth 2016. Surely he knew she'd got a bit of a crush on him before he met Hester? Maybe she hadn't been obvious enough and Hester had. With hindsight she should have wiped the bitch of a synth while she had the chance.

Niska looked at the floor. There was still a crack in the floor from where original Niska had crushed the synths head. The door bell rings. The hire car was here. Time to go and do an operation. She looks up, "Mia, it's our car."

John taped paper over the windows into the operating room, locked the doors from the inside.

Chris looks at the devices on the trolley, all recently cleaned and germ free. "This thing will create a new link between his brain and spinal column?"

"It will, and augment his damaged brain, allow him to do some things a synth can."

"Like what?"

"Head bump."

"You mean talk over WiFi?"

"Yes."

"Amazing. Who made it?"

"I did. It's an update on the original design made by his late father David Elster."

"If you took out the synth bit, could it be used to join two parts of a severed spine?"

"With a modification, yes. Want the design? I'll give it to you on one condition."

"What's that?"

"You both keep today a secret and tell the world you and John invented the spinal bridge."

"Oh, sure, you'd agree to that too wouldn't you John?"

John puts down the roll of tape and has a look at the device, "I most certainly would."

Niska smiles, "There's one other condition. You only charge for the device at cost. It's a life restoring item not money making machine. If I hear of anyone making a fortune off it I'll be back with my throwing stars."

"Well it won't be us you'd be throwing them at. If we were in it for money we'd hardly be in this hospital now would we?"

"I suppose not. Mia, can you shave the back of Leo's head please?"

John bends and looks even closer at the device, "The one it's replacing is much bigger from your model, is it just advances in chips that have enabled you to make it smaller?"

"Yes."

"If it's got synth technology why not make your one bigger and pack more technology in?"

"Heat output and power drain. That one gives him the same functionality as the old one, he won't need to charge his battery quite as often."

"And this coil will free him from having a power terminal?"

"That's the idea, yes."

"Who invented that?"

"It's been around for years, used to charge mobile phones, but it was Daniel that thought of fitting one to a synth."

"Coma man?"

"Yes."

Niska inspects Leo's head. "I'll make the opening, Chris if you can attach the skin and muscle spreaders, Mia if you can help monitor the depth of the blade while I cut a section of skull out."

Moments later the small reciprocating saw blade was cutting out a large rectangle of bone. The sisters worked together well, the thing was lifted away only a minute later.

"If you can keep that sterile and moist Chris."

"Sure."

Niska starts gently picking out fragments of the broken implant. "Keep these all together. I'll join them all up to see nothing has been missed."

John looks at the broken fragment of circuit board, "Then what?"

"I'll crush it."

"You don't want to keep it?"

"It's digital, there may be fragments of Leo's memory still intact. I don't want them falling into the wrong hands." She drops a much larger piece into the stainless steel tray.

"It's not encrypted?"

"We encrypt external backups, not what's in the head. Encryption needs processing. Processing needs power and generates heat."

"Right, and you want to keep those down."

"Exactly."

She pulls out some tiny fragments then a large broken board covered in chips.

"How old is he? That looks like advanced technology for even now."

"He was in his early teens when it went in. If some inventors were on the bleeding edge then David and George were way ahead of the knife."

"Or maybe the ones holding it?"

Chris picks on of the fragments out of the tray with some forceps. "Some bits are bent out of shape, can I straighten them for you?"

"Thank you, yes."

Twenty minutes later Niska used a ultra thin wire with a loop on the end to pull a fragment out that had drifted away from the installation site. "Hopefully that's the last bit." She passes it to Chris.

"That's the puzzle complete as far as I can tell. John, ladies, take a good look. We can x-ray him just to be sure nothing's been missed."

"It we could please."

John and Chris step out of the room while the x-ray is taken.

Niska turns to see Mia, "All clear, let's get the new one in."

Leo's guts release a load of gas just as John and Chris return to the room. Mia smiles, "So sorry, it's a side effect of the special diet he's been on."

Chris covers his face and does a mime, returns to the next room with his colleague.

Niska grins, "That was a stinker. How quickly can he come off the diet?"

"Immediately."

"Good. I'll need you to work with me on this next part."

[Chapter-25](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-25-2)


	25. Chapter 25

Mia sits on Toby's bed and runs a hand over the wooden headboard, thinks of Ed's restoration project and the fifty pound note. Ed, Edwin. Was there any correlation between a person's name and their character traits? Some humans believed in star signs. Could it go even deeper? She turns her head to look around, "I like the way you decorated your room Toby. Did it take you long?"

"What makes you think I did it?"

"Attention to detail."

Toby looks around, "You're right, but which detail?"

Mia pats the bed, "Sit beside me."

She places her hand on his and links fingers, pulls his hand up to her face and kisses his palm. His hand is gently moved in front of his face. "That detail."

"Which?"

"The paint at the left corner of your thumb nail."

"Where? Jeez, you've got good eyesight, that's tiny."

"I like your framed autographed Skyfall poster. Do you think I'd make a good Bond girl?"

Toby gives her a look of surprise, had someone spilt the beans? "You? You'd make an _awesome_ Bond girl."

"You think so?"

"I know so. And Niska tells me these hands helped save a life today." He turns his over and kisses hers. "She was dead impressed with what you did in the operating room, sorting out his hip, fitting the coil and closing up the nasty gash."

"I was just doing what was asked of me."

"Too modest, you did brilliantly."

She looks at some of the things on the floor, odd shapes in zip up bags. "What have you got under your desk?"

"Which one?"

"The one on top."

"That one's a bass guitar."

"How many instruments do you play?"

"How many don't I.. want to try?"

"I've not.."

He'd jumped up, "Come on, give it a go." It's pulled from the pile and unzipped. "I just need to get the tablet out." Draws are pulled open, cables and tablet all connected fast to his sound bar. He unclips one end of the shoulder strap and turns to see her. "Come on, give it a go."

"What do I do?"

"Standing up would be a good start."

He hands Mia the guitar, brings the strap over her shoulder and clips it back on. "You want to hold the neck in your left hand up here, let the thing's weight rest on the strap so you can pluck with your right. Ok, let me help a sec." he gets behind her and gently wraps arms around her, "The first string up top is the thinnest, that's E, the second is B, then G, D, A and the thickest at the bottom is lower E. Or as my band mates like to remember it Easter Bunny Gets Drunk After Easter. Or if you want to remember it bottom to top, Ed Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Ed. Some like it that way as you're looking down on it making everything upside down."

"Thick upwards, yes, dynamite." She flexes her fingers and practices positions, "Can you join in?"

"Um, yeah, let me get another cable hooked up." He gets one from the draw, "I'm sure Vick won't mind just this once." He unzips a vintage Fender Stratocaster and plugs in.

Mia grins having done image searches on the many stickers on the face of the guitar, "Something tells me you might know this." She plays a few notes. A. E. A. E-E-E. E-E. A. E. A.

"Flipping hell! Do I! Want to join our band?"

"Do you play this sort of music?"

"All sorts. But Vick loves a bit of Stranglers, and Peaches is a favourite. I think Dad quite likes it too."

They spend the next half hour jamming.

Niska had been listening from half way down the stairs, gets to the bedroom and knocks on the door, "Sorry to interrupt, we're all off in a few minutes, the taxi's are here, enjoy your evening."

Toby swears under his breath, gives Niska a bug eye'd look, "We got carried away, I forgot the time. We need to get ready. See you later Nis." He helps Mia with the guitar, "Tomorrow I'll let you try Tina's electric violin."

Niska gives Toby a nod and returns to the stairs. He quickly packs the guitars away. Cables are hastily coiled and thrown in a draw. The tablet too. He goes to the wardrobe and pulls something from the top shelf. A box wrapped with a ribbon. "This is for you." He gives her a light kiss, "Put these on, then look in the wardrobe."

He steps out of the room backwards and hurries to the bathroom to quickly change. A suit jacket and shirt was hanging on the back of the door, clean underwear and socks sat on his polished shoes. 

He's just fixing his tie when their's a knock on the door. "Are you in there Toby?"

Her tone sounded a little off, something was wrong. "Yes. Are you ready?"

"Hardly! I thought you would be better than this."

"What?"

"I thought you'd be more mature."

Toby looks at his reflection in the mirror and gives it a questioning WTF? Then remembers he'd cocked something right up. "Give me one second!" He slips on his tux and opens the door. Mia was stood in the hall in the Christian Louboutin heals from the box, hopefully the black thong. His dressing gown and a less than happy expression ruined the look. He hears a floorboard creak, sees Mattie sneaking about and grabs Mia, pulls her in for a kiss. He keeps it going as long as possible until he hears a creak again. She pushes away, a confused look on her face. As she goes to turn he gently pulls her back, "Didn't you hear what I asked?"

Mia frowns and recalls the second part, "I did, and I did. You're in a tux, do you expect me to pick one of your shirts and some jeans or trousers?"

Toby shakes his head, "Which one did you look in?"

Mia frowned harder, "What do you mean which one? Your wardrobe."

Out of the corner of his eye he sees Niska ninja glide out of his bedroom, mouth _Sorry_ and give a signal.

"Sorry." He steps close and cuddles Mia, "Not mine, _yours_." He mouths _I'm sorry_ to Niska, their jamming session had messed up the plans.

"Mine? I don't have a cupboard in your room Toby?"

He holds Mia by the shoulders and smiles, "Don't you? Check again."

Toby can hear the metaphorical cogs whirring.

"One moment Toby." She disappears back into the bedroom. A minute later she races back to the hallway. "I love it!" She does a twirl. "I must have only eyes for you as I didn't see that there a few minutes ago."

"It looks fantastic on you. You look fantastic, well you always do but.. oh my God do you realise you just moved like a young Sophie?"

"Little mouse young?"

"Yeah. None of that minimalist movement worried about my power sh.. stuff. See what you can do when you're not worrying."

"Mattie mentioned that Mattie1's George designed a power modification. If we can get someone to build it for us I can eat! Properly eat and get power from it. Toby! I can break free of the charge cable!"

Toby chuckles, "Sweet. Has she sent the design?"

"Not yet. Why did you laugh?"

"At one of the end of year school performances some teachers did an old Queen song called I Want To Break Free. If a power cable can be called _you_ , you can sing it."

Mia frowns and looks at her little black dress in the mirror. "I'll find the lyrics, one second.. Oh Toby! They're perfect!"

"They are?"

"God knows, God knows I want to break free. I've fallen in love for the first time. And this time I know it's for real. It's strange but it's true. I can't get over the way you love me like you do." She leans forwards and gently kisses her man. "Our song. Thank you."

With lots of things still disabled and some heavy under-clocking to avoid detection Niska quietly creeps up behind Mia and reaches around her, manages to pass Toby a thin box without being noticed. Match mission accomplished.

"This is a little something to finish off the look. You've not fallen in love for the first time though.."

"I was _falling_ for Ed. I've _fallen_ for you Toby."

Niska smiles and slowly steps backwards towards the stairs. The one bad floorboard that they can't seam to avoid creaks. She quickly changes direction and enables everything. "Hello you two, nice outfits! Off somewhere nice?"

"Hello Nis. I'm taking Mia somewhere special."

"A car's outside waiting for you both."

A black Tesla Model X mk III sat outside with it's gull wings up waiting. Toby holds her hand as she climbs into the back and sits down. He's quickly around the other side and climbing in. The black diamond studded choker looked fantastic. He was well aware of what Mia and Niska could do with a single hand grip around a throat, he still found the look dead sexy.

They sit in silence for a bit, just smiling at each other and holding hands.

Mia notices his other hand silently tapping out a rhythm. "What did you study at University Toby?" She knew the answer, just wanted to make conversation.

"Music production and sound engineering. I've not got a pen. Can you remember six words for me?"

"Of course Toby."

"Dry, cry, toy, joy, moon, soon."

"Are you writing a song or remembering an adult mode enable code?"

"Yeah, well thinking about one. A song! I've only got the six lines for the first verse so far."

"Can you sing it to me?"

"Now? Without my guitar?"

"If that's not a problem?"

"Um. I guess." He gets out his phone, starts the Roli Noise app and taps out a rhythm. "The words are subject to change, I usually play with lots of combinations." He starts toe tapping and gets his loop playing.

_My synth girl loves watching the moon_ ,

_I hope to be able to join her soon_.

_Her eyes are beautiful but always dry_ ,

_I can't wait, to see her cry_.

_Not in fear but tears of joy!_ ,

_Her heart's to be protected and not a toy_."

Mia smiled, "Toby Hawkins! You're writing a song for me? You're a keeper.. That is the right expression isn't it?"

"Um, yeah, thanks. You too."

"You're full of surprises this evening. What did you mean by the words join her soon?"

"Become a synth. Not a synthie like Soph was for a bit, a proper full on synth."

"Why would.."

"Mum figured it out when Hester held her hostage. David just wanted to remake us in your form. Why grow old with you when I can stay eternally young?"

"We don't last forever Toby."

"Bodies, no. But if you can copy a design and move the mind across, fab to synth, synth to new synth.."

"You'd give up your life as a fab for me?"

"I don't see it as giving up, it's an upgrade."

"But there's still so much distrust of us."

"When Leo's back on his feet, David, George, Mary and Pete built.."

"That could take years."

"Months at worst. Mattie1 sent step by step assembly instructions as easy to follow as IKEA furniture construction. Which reminds me, I need to confess, Mattie and Niska carried your wardrobe in while we were kissing in the hall. It was supposed to go in earlier but we got carried away with the guitars."

The car pulls up outside the restaurant. Toby turns in his seat and puts a hand on her hip, "God you look fantastic, _good enough to eat_."

Mia starts to frown.

"It's an expression. Supremely beautiful." His hand comes off her hip and holds the back of her neck. She reaches in for a kiss. He lets it linger.

The power down sound plays and she slumps forward.

There's the sound of the gull wing doors moving upwards.

"Lovely design this."

Toby smiles, "This one's priceless. A one off at the moment."

"How many copies do you want?"

"A dozen?"

"Okay. You'll need to give me a month for the copies. Have the driver pull around the back and we'll get things sorted out of site."

"You'll hack the clock right?"

"Everything she's done today will be offset by one hour."

"Good. Let's do this."

Almost an hour later the car is back around the front. Toby positions Mia carefully and looks at the countdown timer on his modified watch. It would beep three times. He shifts and recalls his own position as best as possible, puts his hand on the back of her neck and moves into the kiss.

The power up sound plays.

He leans back and frowns, "Did you just crash?"

"I.. you powered me down!"

"What? Why would I do that?"

"Toby! All your vital signs are telling me you aren't surprised."

"I'm sorry. I just.. I want you more than even my song words can express. Can't we do something to disable or move the button? It's in such a stupid place. I want to be able to kiss and touch every last inch of that beautiful face of yours and not worry about your power."

Every sign said he was now telling the truth. "Maybe there is something we can do. I've been powered down deliberately against my will too many times."

The doors open.

"Good evening sir, your table is waiting."

Inside they're shown to a candle lit table for two.

Mia accepts the wine list and smiles slightly.

Toby looks up from the menu, "Something wrong?"

"I thought you were taking me out dancing."

"I am, after a superb dinner, we'll be out until early morning."

Mia's smile faded. Was Toby just another human thinking about himself? "I don't have a food bag in."

"Order something nice anyway."

"I'd have a catastrophic systems failure if I.."

"Mia! I'll have the chef come out an give you some recommendations." He waves to the waiter.

Mia tries not to look too angry and pretends to scan the menu.

Toby looks up, "Ah, chef, what would you recommend for my beautiful partner with no food bag?"

"Something with a good taste and plenty calories."

Mia frowns and turns to look up at the man behind her.

He smiles, "Hello Mia."

" _FRED!_ "

She slides her chair back and jumps up, gives her brother a long hug. "Where were you?"

"Niska found me in Edinburgh, told Mattie how her Mattie got Edwin's hacks out. I'm a free man at last."

Odi wheels Leo in from the function room, the Hawkins family behind them, Max and Niska following at the rear.

Toby gets up and takes Mia's hand. "Nis had to train you to help with Leo's surgery. You're a food expert and surgeon. It was only fair to allow Fred to be surgeon and chef. Guest chef for this evening." He lowers his voice to an almost silent whisper, "And synth surgeon for a food processor. You were off for exactly one hour. He's getting a dozen copies made so we can let the rest of the family eat too." He picks up and scans the menu, "I think we should do this guitar style, start at the bottom first, start with dessert, don't you?"

She pulls him in for a hug, "Thank you, thank you, thank you. Was the good enough to eat comment earlier a hint?"

"Maybe."

Niska gives Mia's shoulder a rub, "You're crying. Happy tears I hope?"

"Very happy tears."

"I'm glad. Leo's recovering slowly, Fred's back, Laura's been trained in the fund management, you've got all the design and skill data you need for a while. My work here is done for the time being. Time your Niska got her body back and I got home to see my Astrid."

Mia throws her arms around her sister from another world. "Thank you so much, we'll see you again soon?"

"Six months maybe?"

"I'll be counting down the minutes."

Odi wheels Leo forwards.

Leo smiles, "Hello Niska, Mia. I need to thank you both."

[Chapter-26](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-26-2)


	26. Chapter 26

Since Mats1 and Mattie1 could transfer at very high speeds Niska decides to travel home to world one via three to see Thomas and friends, see how they were getting on with Nissy and Mimi. Not a long stay, just enough to see everyone and catch up, let them know the mission was a success.

The morning after Mia's surprise party Mattie puts on the helmet. Having her AI read the numbers and letters to herself in her head was enough, she didn't need to slow down with vocalisation and getting a dry mouth. They'd tried it with another voice originally, it hadn't worked. Then Toby had questioned if the owner of the voice mattered. She'd recorded a message on her phone, played it back. To her surprise it had worked. Mats had heard it.

The even bigger surprise for Mattie was discovering that the helmet worked both ways. Read _and_ write. All of the inventing that the Mattie, Mats and Matildas of other worlds had done and shared was now suddenly understood as if she'd done it herself. Niska kept repeating the Mattie is Mats is Matilda mantra every time Mattie started to question the logic of what they were doing.

Astrid sat by her side on the back seat. "How long will this take?"

"I've got good compression code to crunch the backup down, we've cranked the equivalent word rate up to seven hundred, it's still going to be quite a few days. I send a megabyte then get a checksum back. If it's good I do the next. I can pause at any time for breaks or sleep."

They'd parked up at the edge of the forrest on the other side of the lake to the mansion. Astrid had volunteered to be her runner and get food and drink from the village. She wanted her Nis back as soon as humanly possible.

Niska kissed Astrid, "Thanks for helping out, it would have been less fun without you."

"Say Hi to me in my world for me."

"I will. Good luck with everything Mattie. Especially helping explain everything to Daniel and his family."

"You too. Thanks for everything."

Niska powers down.

She hears the end of the power up sound and opens her eyes to see Mary. She was sat in her apartment in the pyramid.

"Welcome back! Did everything go okay with Leo?"

"He's on his feet, I expect he'll be using crutches for a few more months."

"Good that it worked. Did you have to reconstruct a lot of memories?"

"Nowhere near as many as I expected. The biggest problem was controlling blood loss while we fitted the new synth technology."

"There's a zip up tail for you in the wardrobe, as Rogue was able to give us regular progress updates.."

"You knew when I'd be back?"

"Exactly. Almost to the minute. We've got the stage tank set up in the park for rehearsals, fancy a swim? Mimi and Nissy love it. Although they won't be doing the show to the King, people outside aren't ready to see mermaid babies with legs and tails."

Niska gets her phone and hesitates. Should she tell Toby here that he was also seeing Mia in Mattie's world? Why not. But not over the phone, something to drop into the conversation at dinner. "Is everyone about for dinner tonight?"

"I think so."

"Good. I have a craving for Champagne and good pizza."

"Mats is busy with political things, Leo too. Mr V said you could call by the school and see everyone."

"Why?"

"You'd made quite an impression on Thomas and Billy. Mats called them up to see Viera. Their first film is rather good. I'd not normally be into science fiction romcom horror but they pulled off a brilliant mix of all three genre. Their whole year had a screening in the park."

"Do you know where their class is?"

"I do. I've been teaching sex education. We don't want any real unwanted babies. Mimi's been quite good in that regard."

"How?"

"She pretends to be a real baby, demands a feed every two hours all day and night. Half a dozen girls have taken her home and changed their minds."

"They didn't just power her off?"

"Nobody but Candice and Thomas know how to power them down. It's coded. Not just a single tap."

"Oh. Good. Shall we go then?"

"Want to change into a t-shirt first?"

Candice wiped a happy tear as Ninjska stood at the front of their class in her ninja stars design top.

Mr Vitus leaned against the whiteboard trying to be cool and wiped out a good part of the prose he'd spent the last ten minutes writing. "Our guest needs no introduction. Ninjska tells me she'd like to see Thomas and Billy's film before she returns home in a few hours. Who's up for seeing it again?"

Every hand shoots up.

"Good. Mary, would you mind looking after the sisters, I don't think they should see it."

"I'd love to. Want a swim in the pool girls?"

Nissy tries to pull herself up out of her seat.

Candice grabs her, undoes the harness. "It looks like that's a yes sir."

Placed on the floor Nissy runs at speed to Mary, turns to look at her sister. "Mimi?"

"Mimi watch film."

Thomas unclips her and whispers in her ear.

"Mimi swim."

Mary looks disapprovingly at him, "Did you just promise to show her the film at home?"

"Yes. As it's PG rating I'll be a responsible parent and skip the bits they shouldn't see."

Mary bends down and picks up the two girls, "We'll be in the pool Ninjska, bring your tail for a swim. Let Carly, Emily, Mia and Niska know."

Candice gives Thomas a sideways glance and smile, "I'll see you there too after the film, I need some practice."

Thomas grins, "Shells or.."

"In your dreams!" She then quickly glances around without moving her head and mouths _Maybe_.

Mr Vitus looked around the class, "This isn't exactly the most comfortable place to watch it. Recommendations?"

[Chapter-27](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-27-2)


	27. Chapter 27

Niska powers up and opens her eyes to see Astrid. They were in their basement room at the factory. "At last! I'm home!" She pulls her close and gives her one of the super light kisses.

Instead of getting passionate too Astrid takes a step back, "Have you been seeing someone else?"

"Pardon?"

"You heard me. You've never kissed me like that before."

"I can explain.."

"So you have. Scheisse."

Niska watches her turn and head for the door. "Astrid! Wait! Let me explain.."

"I've waited months for this moment and the first thing I learn is that you've been unfaithful. Goodbye Niska."

"Astrid please!"

The door slams.

The Lake House, 12 Monkeys, Primer, Star Trek IV, Back To The Future, Timecop, MIN3, Looper, Source Code, Ground Hog Day, Terminator, Live Die Repeat, Interstellar, Jump, Return to Day Zero, countless others she'd watched with the others, they'd all covered issues with time travel. Some good, many bad. No films in her world had warned about traveling to parallel worlds.

Thomas had foreseen some of the problems, put them in his film with Billy. She'd only finished watching it hours ago. Replica. A first film by Catlow and Evans. DOP and special effects by Viera.

In the film repeater stations across the galaxy allowed a synth to jump far distances. Only one had deliberately spiked his fact store so instead of a receive-send-delete operation it did receive-send-build. Copies of the ninja synth were taking over the galaxy. The galaxy's only hope was to send copies of a human the synth had once met and briefly had a fling with. All sorts of things had happened in the hour and a half adventure, many made the girls gasp, cry, giggle or look lovingly at the actors. All virtual of course, but not obviously so. They had a striking resemblance to Thomas and Candice. A man looking somewhat like Billy had been the President of The Galactic Alliance and ordered copies of the human woman to find the rogue ninja and shut him down.

And here she was having betrayed Astrid. She'd not told Thomas much about her life back here. Maybe he'd guessed. There were a number of things in the film that were close to her reality. No good crying over what was done.

She goes to the door to find Astrid. 'All James, any of you seen Astrid?'

'Hello Niska. She was crying, got on her bike. Without a helmet.'

'What! And you didn't stop her?'

'We don't move that fast.'

'Emergency! Bart!'

'Yes?'

'Emergency! I want you outside the front of the factory as fast as possible.'

'On my way.'

Niska runs at speed towards the entrance, shoves the big heavy doors open and starts down the stairs. Bart was doing his best not to send gravel into the air, he'd ripped grass up as he'd raced around the building. 'Giro's to max, I'm doing a flying mount.' she leaps into the air and turns, lands hard on his seat sending it skidding sideways with the giros screaming loud. "Lets's Go!"

"Where?"

"After Astrid!"

"Where is she?"

"Ask her Bart." Bart races towards the B road. "You've got a location?"

"Yes. Bart says they're heading towards Dover."

"Dover?"

"To get a ferry."

"Shit. Any Angels and their power drones in the vicinity?"

"Angels?"

"The Mattie and Leo copies, the white robots."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Which world is this?"

"Earth."

"Which one?"

"Are you okay? There is only one."

"No! No, no, no! Fuck!"

"Niska?"

"Get to her as fast as possible, you drive." She lowers her hands and slides back, gets tight against the seat, head down. 'As fast as you can, I want to overclock, need the windchill.'

'Understood.'

Niska went through all the permutations she could think of. A scene in C&E's film came to mind. Had she jumped back into another world? One that didn't know about the others? Why would Astrid have powered her up and not questioned the _I'm back!_

After a good bit of body warming overclocking she slides back a little further and rests the tip of her chin on the seat. 'Bart, how many times have we ridden together?'

'This is the first.'

' _KNEW IT!_ Where's _my_ Bart?'

'Having an upgrade.'

'How old are you?'

'Two weeks, three days, seven hours, four..'

'Enough! Why aren't you a fork of my Bart?'

'I am. Just minus a lot of his fact store.'

'Why?'

'I don't know, you'd have to ask Daniel.'

'Okay. Do a to-all broadcast on your long range radio with our GPS location, ask anyone that receives it that's not a James or Bart if they're within ten kilometres of us and what their location is.'

'Done.'

'Any replies?'

'Lots!'

'The closest to Astrid?'

'Ident is AGDGRL1. Who's that?'

'An Angel. Ask her to track Astrid, she's to swoop down and pluck her off the back of Bart. Bart is to slow down and stop safely.'

'Messages sent.'

'How far behind are we?'

'At this speed, forty seconds.'

'And the Angel?'

'I'll ask.. sixty plus.'

'Okay, slow down a little, we don't want to get there first.'

A minute and a half later Niska spots the Angel, drone and very annoyed Astrid on the hard shoulder. She couldn't see her face clearly yet but the stance spoke volumes. "Where's her Bart?"

"Two point one five kilometres further on."

She pulls over and slows, Astrid is looking as furious as expected. Niska dismounts and walks over, heavy goods lorries thunder past. "Please let me explain."

"There's nothing you can say. You've been with someone else."

"A boy kissed me, once, I helped him get with a girl he liked. The only other person I've been with is you!" Their clothes get a good buffeting as a lorry races past, one wheel on the white like of the hard shoulder. "Can we move before some idiot wipes us out?"

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Stop being so stubborn, this isn't you."

"Not the me you were with, bit still me."

"Astrid! You and her are the same person!"

"To you. I have no memories of whatever it was you did with her."

A lorry comes even closer, its left wheels well over the white line. AGDGRL1 gets her drone up onto the grass bank well out of the way. "Do you have a frigging death wish?"

Astrid's expression changes as she looks at the Angel, "A death wish?"

"Do you want to die?"

"No."

"THEN MOVE!"

Astrid frowns and turns to look back down the motorway and sees Niska moving very fast, a huge lorry coming way too close. Niska shoves her hard towards AGDGRL1.

Newton's third law is simple and applies equally in all worlds without exception: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Pushing Astrid to safety had sent Niska directly into the path of the lorry. There's a sickening crunch of metal as the two collide.

Astrid is caught by AGDGRL1 just before she hits the grass. It takes them a few seconds to get to their feet.

"NISKA!" There's the continued screeching of rubber on tarmac as the lorry's wheels shred, the brakes having locked. "Scheisse! NISKA!"

AGDGRL1 rugby tackles Astrid to the ground seconds later. "Not like this. If you love Niska ask Mattie to start a new build."

"Niska!" Astrid's face is wet with tears, she tries to scramble forward.

AGDGRL1 grips tight around her waist, "She's gone. Astrid she's gone!" 'Mattie! Do you have Niska's transfer safely backed up? If not do so now! Talk to George in three, we need 6.1 deltas, I'm sure he'll know what that means. Don't start a build until Astrid asks for it. That was Niska's last words, she's gone. She just saved Astrid's life, had a fight with a frigging articulated lorry and lost.'

[Chapter-28](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-28-2)


	28. Chapter 28

Fork Niska was aware of sound but nothing else. Samantha had warned her about this, to try lots of different sample rates and byte patterns until it made sense. It sounded like fingers on a keyboard already. "Hello?"

There's a short scream. "Shit! You made me jump. Dad! It's actually frigging working! DAD! Where's he gone.."

"Mattie?"

"Niska?"

"I can't see anything."

"Sorry, I'm an idiot, I've got the cameras face down. One sec."

A black and white image appears as Mattie lifts one of the cameras up off the table. "The cameras are black and white only?"

"Are they?"

"I'm not seeing colour."

"Crap. Maybe we got the wrong ones?"

"Can you look up the part?"

"Um.. not without a lot of work."

"Why?"

"The PC didn't have enough RAM to run Windows and you. So you're the OS now. Mats, Mattie, Sam and Viera had a conflab, they've given me a little.. um.. bootloader I think they called it. A program to start you up and some more stuff for your fact store so you can have a poke about for other interfaces. Somewhere you should have two serial ports. One's got the modem for the BBS access."

"It would be so much easier if you had the Internet. Without the Internet my program trading code would have been useless, how did you get the chips to make my storage and interface boards?"

The camera that had been held in Mattie's hand is placed face down again.

"Mattie?"

There's the sound of Mattie moving. "Dad! She's asking about the chips! DAD! Where the frig is he? Back in a minute."

Niska asks her fact store for anything related to the word interface. The first thing returned is about real time clocks. She gets more detail and reads the number, converts it to a time and date.

What! "Nine months!"

There's silence.

She searches more, finds data on serial ports. How does she talk to a modem? Catch 22. No idea how to talk to the old technology, no Internet to look it up!

There's the sound of multiple footsteps.

"Mattie?"

"Hi."

"Nine months?"

"I did have to write it all down by hand and read it back, then come home and type it all in. Take out travel time and I only had a few hours a day to be there." Mattie holds one of the cameras above the table. Pages and pages of letters and numbers filled five large volumes of A4 graph paper.

"Why the line, space then two hex digits?"

"Mats said it was for the updated uuencode and uudecode. A two byte checksum per line she said to help the tools say where we'd typed a line wrong." Some lines were crossed out, the line repeated with correction below with a tick to the right. "Getting those two programs on the computer wasn't fun. Pages and pages of hexadecimal typed in raw. Dad and I spent hours working out where we'd mistyped things before it would decode the message."

"What message?"

"Hello Mattie8, you did it! Say Hi to Ninjska for us, good luck!"

"We're going to need some, I don't know how to talk modem."

"Oh. Me neither."

"Might the library have something?"

"Hello Joe. They might."

"Hello Niska. How did you know.."

"That it was you? You sound the same. More or less."

"Hmm. Mats the metal's all bent ready for screwing on the hose bits. Hopefully I got it all right. I'm more of a wood man Niska."

"I know. How did you get all the chips to build my circuits?"

Joe coughs, "Don't ask."

"Why?"

"It's iffy."

"Iffy?"

"Not strictly legit. And with Laur doing her lawyer exams.."

"I'm not going to go telling anyone. What did you do?"

"Mats found a loophole someone posted on a BBS forum. Hardwarecrack. The people that make that memory chip were bringing out a new wizz bang chip, wanted developers to try it out. As a sweetener they, um.. bundled it? Right Mats? Yeah bundled it, with the memory chip we wanted. Dirt cheep! So Mats got all her friends to ask all their friends and their friend's friends to register for one. We've got about four thousand of those wizzy things in a box."

"What are they?"

"Search me. Mats?"

"No idea."

"Can I see?"

"Um.. we've saved a few of the copies of the paperwork, recycled the rest. One sec."

Niska wasn't an expert on microchips but knew the words CPU, ARM and Multicore. "You beautiful people!"

"Is it good?"

"Brilliant! Mattie you need to get back to the estate and tell Mattie and Mats about these."

"What are they?"

"A better CPU than the one in here."

If it was possible to hear someone slump in a dejected way that's what Niska hears next.

"What's the problem?"

"Nothing."

"Joe that tone doesn't say nothing. What's wrong?"

He sighs, "The aggravation we had getting just these boards made to get this far. I'm guessing you'll need more? And more sophisticated ones?"

"Yes. If Mattie goes to the estate and reads out the data sheet maybe they can look up the basics of modem use and dictate something?"

"I'll drop Mats off and drive into town, get a book."

"Okay. In the mean time can you prop a camera up looking at the monitor? I'll see if I can work out the video card."

"Sure.. how's that?"

"Down a bit. Stop!"

"Dad, can you pass me the tape?"

Niska hears tape being pulled from a role. "Enough?"

"Yeah Dad. Still good Niska?"

"Good enough. Thank you."

"Come on Mattie, let's go get this modem thing sorted before Laur wants picking up."

Niska hears keys being snatched up. "Drive carefully."

Niska's attempts to detect the video card were met with disaster. David had told her about BIOS settings and how to read where interfaces were in the memory map, how interrupts worked, direct memory access, the simple stuff. What he hadn't covered was video modes. Not knowing the numbers to write where she started an incremental loop through possible values. Less than two minutes in she wrote another set of values and crashed the video card.

Joe drops the book onto the table, "Mats? Come look at this."

"Just getting my boots off."

"Niska? Can you hear me? .. Mattie I think she's crashed."

Mattie comes racing in, one sock half off.

Joe points, "I'm no computer expert but I'm sure the screen shouldn't be doing _that_."

"Frigging hell. If she's corrupted herself.. no way am I retyping all that lot." She hits Crtl-Alt-Del. Nothing happens.

Joe reaches for the power button, "Do we power her off and on?"

"I guess?"

"All of it or just your PC first?"

"Try just the PC first."

Joe presses and holds the power button until the power drops. "Fingers crossed. He presses it again. They wait a moment. As per the first boot there's nothing on the screen.

"Niska?"

"Hello Mattie."

"Thank fuck. Are you corrupted?"

"I don't think so. Why do you ask?"

"The screen was covered in weird flashing patterns, it looked like you'd crashed yourself. Do you remember why your camera is pointing at your screen?"

"It's not in RAM, checking the external.. yes. I was trying to work out how to use the video card."

"Don't do it again until you've checked all the hardware forums. Dad got a book, hopefully it has what we need. Mats1 said to check out AT commands."

"Can you read it to me Joe?"

Joe shakes his head, "Mats can, I've got to go pick up Laur from the station."

"What sort of car do you have, do you have more than one?"

"Cars? I've a van, no Mats's car less. See you in a bit Mats."

Niska hears a chair being rolled closer.

"Okay. Page one. Once upon a time.."

"I'm not a child!"

"That's how the book starts."

"Oh. Sorry. Carry on."

"Once upon a time computers had no way to talk to each other except when hard wired together in the same room. A modem or modulator-demodulator, is a hardware device that modulates one or more carrier wave signals to encode digital information for transmission and demodulates signals to decode the transmitted information.

The most common type of modem the public will see is one that turns the digital data of a computer into modulated electrical signal for transmission over telephone lines and demodulates return signals from another modem at the receiver side.

The Bell 103A dataset standard was introduced by AT&T in 1962. It provided a full-duplex service at 300 bits a second over normal phone lines. For many years operators of the computers had to make and drop calls via a handset, the modem taking over once the call was established.

In 1981 Dennis Hayes introduced The Hayes command set. A specific command language originally developed for the Hayes Smartmodem. Also running at 300 baud this modem could be controlled by the computer with a command set consisting of a series of short text strings which can be combined to produce commands for operations such as dialing, hanging up, and changing the parameters of the connection. The vast majority of dial-up modems use the Hayes command set in numerous variations.."

"Can we skip forward to the bit where I hear about commands?"

"Are you always this frigging impatient?"

[Chapter-29](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-29-2)


	29. Chapter 29

Niska hears the power up sound and opens her eyes to see lots of people. The room was packed. Coming back home to Astrid was supposed to be a private and intimate moment, not anywhere near as public.

Astrid had her arms crossed and wasn't looking happy. "I'm giving you a chance to explain yourself better. The others wanted to see what a seven was like."

"Better?"

Sophie turns to Astrid, "She won't remember, none of it's in her fact store."

Remember what? She'd watched Replica with the class, had a swim, said goodbye to everyone and powered down in her apartment, woke here. And what did they mean by seven? "Seven?"

"George3 has made some changes based on feedback from Louise and Odi."

"What sort of feedback?"

"Hopefully good. Overclock hard and see how your temperature rises."

Everyone was looking at her like she was an animal in a laboratory. She starts as many separate calculations of Pi as her cores will allow. Her temperature rises, but not to dangerously high levels. She tries to clock harder and can't.

Astrid keeps her expression a little frosty. "From your frown I'm guessing that worked, go stand under a cold shower and try again."

Niska decides to do as asked and not argue, save her many questions until later.

In the shower she turns the tap fully to cold and overclocks. This time she's able to process the same multiple Pi calculations far faster. She shuts off the water and the processing rapidly slows back to the level she'd achieved in the room. The tap is opened right up again and up the clock rate jumps. It's shut off and a towel grabbed. She wraps it around herself and rushes back to the room. "How?"

Her George smiles, "I had a chat with myself, quite amusing, it's a new special micro controller that sits on a large number of sensor wires in parallel to your processing core. It's read only, watches for temperature data from many thousands of sensors. It governs the maximum clock rates based on available cooling."

"So I can't do microbursts and let the heat dissipation occur afterwards? You've downgraded Ninja Nis?"

"What processing did you try?"

"Pi on all cores."

"Try it on just one."

She does as suggested, gets a super fast result, her fluid pump spinning up. "That worked. Not as fast as it used to be but fast enough."

"If it gets you moving fast then the air chill will allow other cores to clock faster, you'll move faster, clock faster, move faster.. you get the idea."

"I do. Thank you. Can someone please explain Astrid's _explain yourself better_?"

Mattie shrugs, "Easy. You did something in four, had a barney when you came back, had a bike chase, pushed her out of the path of a lorry, pushing yourself into it. You did some _spectacular_ damage to the lorry. The driver's trying to sue for damages and stress. A bit of a nerve given we've got footage from Bart's rear camera showing he was drifting onto the hard shoulder while reading his phone."

[Chapter-30](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-30-2)


	30. Chapter 30

Mattie had finished the book, all relevant facts were stored. She'd skipped verbose history sections and kept to the data needed. The book could have been a small pamphlet without all the padding.

Phone number and account details had to be read off a stack of floppy discs she'd used to back up her documents.

"I think I've found it Mattie."

"Found what?"

"The specification to the video card."

"Cool. Make sure you have your fact store thingy up to date before you try."

"Already done. The highest colour depth mode is this." The screen flickers and displays a test pattern.

"That worked, no crash."

"Or highest resolution but at a fraction of the colour depth is this." The screen goes blank for a few seconds as the monitor synchronises to the new signals.

"That's better, keep to that one."

"Okay. This is me." A photo of Niska and Astrid loads.

"Which one is you?"

"Sorry, I'm the blonde."

"And the brunette?"

"My partner Astrid."

"She's nice." Mattie plays with her thumb ring. She didn't have a partner at the moment.

"Thanks. I'll miss her. She's a human. I've got photos of your brother and sister in other worlds if you're interested?"

"Um.. yeah, why not. Just don't show Mum or Dad just yet."

"These two are an old one of your sister Sophie from Mattie in world four and her recently in mine."

"Wow. Very pretty. Also escaped the red hair."

"And these are Toby your brother, shared from four again."

"Wow. Who are the two with him in the latest photo?"

"On the left is my sister Mia, his girlfriend, and his friend Renie."

"Both synths?"

"No, Renie's human."

The doorbell rings. "Give me a sec, someone's at the door."

Niska hears Mattie move the chair and run. The microphone as mono so she had no idea of which direction that was in. Joe was busy on a job for a paying customer, hoped to get body one powered up tonight, their first air compressor had blown up as soon as it was plugged in.

"Cool! I've got something for you!"

"For me Mattie?"

"Mum's at work, Dad too, so unless someone's made a way to slide in from another world just by thinking it we're the only two here."

"Point taken. So what is it?"

"It, is a they."

"Animal, mineral or vegetable?"

"Haha, mineral."

"That helps given my current form. A clue?"

"We ordered the right ones, some plonker picked the wrong ones up when they did our order."

"New cameras!"

"Yup. 4 new ones. Full colour."

"Brilliant!"

"I'm not great with hardware but think I can handle a few small screws to change the lenses. These should be safe to unplug with your power up shouldn't they?"

"I don't know. It's probably best to shut down just to be safe. Shutting down, I'll leave a smilie on the screen when I'm all fact stored up."

The crazy smilie appeared a second later.

Niska boots to see a distorted Mattie through a colour camera. "Nice! I can see you in colour! Can you sweep it about a bit. A bit slower, that's it.. patching them together. So this is you." A picture appears.

"That's me."

The door opens and slams.

"Mum? Dad?"

"Only me! Odiot put the appointment on the wrong page of his diary. Drove all the way there and he's having a jolly in the golf course club house with all his mates, says come back tomorrow."

"Will you?"

"No. He can find someone else.. wait a sec. That image.. the replacement cameras arrived already?"

"Yup."

Mattie picks up the camera and points it at her father.

"Same red hair in my world."

"Got a photo of Mum and Dad from another world Nis?"

"I do. Here's the best one."

"DAD!"

"Flippin hell! That's really me?"

"This is you Joe."

"Um.. I've not looked like that in.. years."

"There's a reason to stop grabbing a Ginsters every time you get near a frigging petrol station then Dad."

"Can you cook Mattie?"

"Yeah. Just."

"I've got some recipes from Mia. They'll work wonders for you all. DON'T share them with anyone else. They're for you only."

"Why?"

"Spoilers. You'll see. Do you have a printer?"

"A simple dot matrix I can put on the other serial port. It's a bit noisy."

"I'm sure it won't be half as noisy as me."

Joe puts a finger up, "That reminds me, air line. I checked the tyre pressure on the van on the way back, guilty visit for a sausage roll. That sort of hose is what we need for your compressor to the fanout. I'll go see if I can get a length somewhere."

Niska dials the modem. "I'm going to check the forums. Did Mats say anything about the CPU chip this morning?"

"I've not been. I had to go to the shops in a hurry."

"Oh. Why was that?"

"Monthly cycle.."

"Oh. It must be horrible."

"Not as bad as some get it. I'll go tomorrow."

"Is the owner still okay with you visiting?"

"Yeah, he's mellowed a bit. His father had died, had a heart attack. He'd had a nightmare trying to pay the inheritance tax, maintenance, all that shit. He actually says hello with a smile now."

"What does he look like."

"I did a sketch a few weeks ago, um, which book.. not that one.. here we are. It's not very good, I'm better at landscapes and buildings."

There's a long silence.

"Niska?"

"What's his name?"

"Liam Etherington."

There's another long silence.

"Nis? Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong. It's just that in some worlds he's married, now goes by the name Leo Elster Hawkins." A picture of Mattie and Leo on their wedding day in another world loads.

"FRIGGING HELL! DAD! Dad! Are you still here!"

Joe comes running, one workman's boot on, the other foot just in a sock. "What've you done?"

"Nothing. Look!"

Joe stares at the screen and turns to his daughter, back to the screen, back to his daughter. "Is that you?"

"Me in another world. And that's Leo. The same guy physically as Liam the estate owner."

"Holy crap. Is he royalty or something?"

Niska laughs, "Don't tell him that, his head might explode. No, not royalty. If the events that lead to his family move and mother's death in other worlds didn't happen here how did he end up there?"

Mattie shrugs, "Maybe fate plays a part, trying to pull our worlds back onto a common path?"

"Maybe. Oops."

"Nis?"

"The hardware people that send the chips out are wondering why thousands went out to a relatively small section of the UK and why no designs have been logged. When you talk to Mats and Mattie tomorrow ask them to get their Daniels on the case, come up with a few designs that you and your friends can post."

"Okay."

"Ask Viera too, she might be able to spit one out super quick."

"Her names been mentioned a few times, who is she?"

"Who and what might be more appropriate. A lovely lady. An exacore."

"Is that a different type of synth?"

"No, she's a giant collection of computers. She can process three hundred thousand billion billion floating point operations a second."

Silence falls.

"That's a lot."

There's a long pause before Mattie speaks, "Just a few! I'm having problems working out how many zeros are in that."

"Billion was accepted globally as one and nine zeros in 1975 when Britain dropped their million million which is now a trillion. Three and twenty three zeros."

"Frigging hell!"

Joe shakes his head, "Nope, too big, computer says no, can't begin to get my head around that big a number. Shall I go get some hose?"

"Sure."

[Chapter-31](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-31-2)


	31. Chapter 31

Joe did up the last of the screws and put down his screwdriver, picked up a check list. "Can you see okay out of all four cameras?"

"Yes."

"Sensors reporting position data?"

"Yes."

He gently moves an arm. "Data updated?"

"Yes."

"Okay everyone, PPE on."

Laura gives him a confused look. "PPE?"

"Personal Protection Equipment. Your ear defenders."

"Oh."

Joe gives Mattie a thumbs up as Laura puts her bright orange defenders on and Mattie throws the switch on the compressor. Nothing moves. He steps in front of Niska and gives two thumbs up.

There's a super short click-clack of a valve and her left arm moves slightly. It's repeated but with a slightly longer gap between them. The arm moves further.

More valves are opened and closed and Niska starts moving, properly moving. She goes to stand and topples against the heavy foam and studding play pen Joe had knocked up. "It's working!" She brings hands down to the foam and regains an upright position, "People can call me four eyes all they want, this is great!"

Mattie holds out a tennis ball on a stick, Niska gets it first time, she'd been correcting the trajectory of her hand as it got closer . "THANK YOU TOBY!"

Niska does a careful lean and bend and sits down, gives a thumbs up.

Joe cuts the power to the compressor and pulls of his ear protection. "Wow! Dead impressed."

A beaming Mattie pulls her's off and waves at her mother. "Frigging A! I reckon we go and see George."

"When?"

"Right now!"

Niska showed a photo of her looking happy on the monitor. "Have you got the photo of us and George?"

"No."

"I'll push it up to the BBS files area. How do you get things on your phone?"

"A virtual modem in the phone."

"So you can access things on the go?"

"Yeah. Oh. Frigging muppet. I could have used it to search for modem commands. Crap. I'm not technically minded. Well I wasn't, learning fast though. Um.. BBS App. Okay. Downloading."

Niska dials the modem ready for an upload. "How long will it take you to get to George?"

"He's inner London too, a couple of hours there and back maybe? Laur you're going to have to stay here, only three seats."

"I'll stay and chat with Niska."

Joe does an excited hand rub, "Hoohoohoo. This is fun! Come on! Shoes on."

The door slams seconds later. Laura rolls her eyes, "Sorry about that, sometimes it feels like Mattie is the adult and Joe the child."

"I can understand their excitement, I'm quite excited."

"Why did you topple forwards?"

"I wasn't paying attention to all the strain gauges. I will next time. The ones in my heals would have told me I was leaning too far forward."

There's near silence for a moment as Laura takes a seat in front of Niska's big old CRT monitor. She rests an elbow on the table and her chin on her palm. "Who's Toby?"

"The man who thought of putting cameras in my hands."

"But who is he? What relationship does he have to you and Mattie in your world?"

"I.. "

"Hesitation, not good. Implies guilt or facts to be hidden."

"No guilt on my part."

"What are you hiding then?"

Niska thought for a while. "What's the midwifery like in this world?"

"What an odd question. Very good. Why?"

"Toby's your son." A photo of Mattie, Toby and Sophie together displays.

"Oh my!"

Niska couldn't move with the air feed off but could make out what looked like Laura moving hands to her face as she leaned to one side. She gets back in front of the monitor.

Niska let her look at the photograph rather than ask her to look her in the face. The speakers were either side of the CRT so it was easy to get confused as to where she was.

"He's a handsome lad. Joe and I always wanted more children, the costs.."

"To expensive. Understandable."

"Who's the girl to his other side."

"Your daughter Sophie."

The crying turned in to full on sobbing. "It's not fair, the opportunities we've missed."

"It's not too late."

"Kids at my age? It's far too risky."

"What if you were younger?"

"I'd fall in a heartbeat."

"Go make a coffee, we need to have a good long chat."

Hatch, match, dispatch. Hatching plans for others hatching. That counted didn't it?

~~~

Laura was in a much more buoyant mood when the door bell went an hour and forty later. "Excuse me a sec Nis."

"Of course."

Niska hears the commotion in the hall, discussions on who should push or pull.

Moments later a large padded wheelchair comes into view, the tall back supporting Georges head in a rest.

The resolution of her cameras was low but she could see well enough to see his constant shaking. "Oh George, you poor thing! You must be exhausted."

Although his head was constantly shaking his eyes managed to see enough, "Nisssssk."

Mattie got to George's side fast, "We did a lot of explaining on the way. I think he wants out."

"Pillllls."

"We can't let.."

"What sort are they Mattie?"

"No idea."

"Best to find out before we judge."

"Um, yeah. George? Where are they?"

"Chhhr."

"Anyone understand that?"

"Try his wheelchair?"

"Oh, yeah, of course."

Mattie has a rummage through the pockets on the side and back and finds a small brown plastic bottle. "Um.. Primidone?"

There's a click and beeping of touch tones as Niska dials up the BBS systems. The modem goes through it's horrible squawking and screeching as it negotiates with the other end. "A beta-blocker, used to treat heart disease, high blood pressure. Also an anticonvulsant used to reduce tremors. If that's what he's been prescribed let him have a dose."

While they all wait for the tablets to kick in Niska talks for them all, telling George everything she can. About her start in life, as a child synth in adult form, how he, David and Edwin had made the first prototype and then Mia, followed her with Fred, herself and Max. She describes the parallel worlds and how Mattie is able to hear her other selves when close to the lake at the estate. She shows him all of the pictures. He doesn't try to say even a single word. When the shaking eventually stops he looks totally worn out.

"Any thoughts?"

"How.."

"How what?"

"Nnnnew b-bodddy."

"If you want to do this we'll build you a new body. I'll design it with help from my friends. It will be very basic at first. We'll need to build a special helmet, like the one used to save David's son Leo. You'll exist in this system with me until it's done."

George lets his head flop forward in an attempt at a nod. "D-doo it. This one is shit."

He'd made a huge effort to get the last four words out clearly.

"Okay. Joe, I'll get printing the plans for phase two. The helmet. This one could take a while, we need parts and I've not been able to get funds with no Internet."

George manages to pull his head back, "Allow me. Stay here."

Laura looks at Mattie, "That care home must be costing a fortune. A few grand a week for the care George needs at least."

A shaky hand raises with three fingers up.

"Frigging hell. Three grand a week?"

"Yesss."

"And you want to stay here? You'd be happy for me doing everything for you? No male nurse?"

"Yess. Frrwrds no back."

"Move forwards not back?"

His head bounces a bit.

"Your call. Dad, you're blowing that customer off tomorrow, fancy going shopping? Nis, you'll need to print off a list."

"If your phone bill isn't too bad Joe I'll stay online all night and check every BBS I can for suitable parts."

[Chapter-32](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-32-2)


	32. Chapter 32

Astrid took Niska's hand and led her into the garden behind the factory. "You won't have seen this new section before. Mia landscaped and planted it when you left for your short holiday. She missed you too."

Niska looked downwards with a guilty face, "I'm sorry, I was away much longer than expected.."

"So you said."

"And I didn't get to do all of the missions Mats had lined up for me."

"If they weren't as critical as the ones you did do they can wait for another time. Or Niska in one of the other worlds can have a go. It sounds like the one in world four isn't that different to you."

"Astrid, that's what I've been trying to get you to understand, somehow they are all me. And all the Astrids are you. Don't ask me how, I don't know. The way you spoke, moved, smelt and tasted, you were identical."

"Tasted?"

"The toothpaste taste in the mornings before your first coffee, the taste of.. you and her were identical to the last details." She pulls Astrid in for a kiss, undoes a couple of buttons on her blouse.

"Niska? What are you doing?"

"In the other world you said _My Niska would be more daring_ so I'm being more daring."

"Here in the open?"

"Mia's out with Toby, Fred and Max, she's not going to be here any time soon, who's going to visit?"

"Anyone could."

"Which makes it more exciting, the risk of being discovered. Why did you bring me out here?"

"Kussen und kuscheln ist hier nicht verboten."

Niska smiles and slides a hand into Astrid's blouse, "Exactly." Her hand slips between bra cup and breast, "You're lovely and warm. There, I'm cuddling. Your move."

"My move? You talk like we're playing chess."

"I was think more of Twister. With a twist."

"Okay.. Mein bewegun? You want daring." A button is undone and zip opened. Moments later Niska gasps. "Daring enough for you? Yes?"

With her free hand Niska holds the back of Astrid's neck and practices the super light kisses.

Ten minutes later Astrid is getting too hot and groans, "You're a bad girl Niska Elster."

Niska gives her a wicked smile, "Neunundsechzig? Behind the roses so we can hear if anyone is coming before they see us properly."

"Unless they hear me cumming first? I can't turn off audio like you. I think I rather go inside to our room, no ants or flies to bite me in there, more comfortable too."

"They do like your sweet taste. Another problem we synths don't suffer from. Mosquitoes would get a nasty surprise if they tried to feed off us, assuming they could break through our skin." She grins and starts laughing, has to pull her hand free from Astrid's bra.

"Was?"

"I'd never thought of it in those terms before. When I'm riding the bike the volume of flies that hit me is higher at one speed than any other. I overclock in proportion to the speed I'm doing. It must be that when I'm too cold they're not interested, too hot and I'm not attractive to them. There must be a range they think is ideal. Or their eyes have a narrow band of thermal imaging capability. If I clock at the right rate at lower speeds I'd have to clean my bike leathers less."

Astrid pulls her hand free, "Dead flies. Ew. If you're trying to turn me off it is working."

"Sorry." she grabs Astrid's hand, "Come downstairs, let me turn you back on."

"Press my chin, pretended I'm a synth?"

"If you'd like."

"My on switch is elsewhere. You'll need to find it."

Niska smiles warmly, "This switch, does it need a press with a finger or a touch with a gentle kiss?"

"Today, today I will put it somewhere where a kiss will work."

[Chapter-33](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-33-2)


	33. Chapter 33

Niska's regular overnight searches of the UK's BBS systems paid off. She found a firm by the south coast that made low volume quality circuit boards. The world one and three teams had given them a whole bunch of designs via Mattie. Some were for little general purpose computers, something to keep the chip supplier happy, one in particular for their own use.

A week later and they had boards.

The 'brain boards' as they'd been nicknamed were made in one large part. They were then water-jet cut by Joe at a mates workshop. The mate used it for cutting stone kitchen worktops usually. Dummy tracks and solder pads ran over the cut lines so the end shape wasn't obvious to the people that had fabricated it, nobody would figure out what they were for.

George was almost incapacitated on a heavy dose of medication, he didn't care, the sooner he got into the new body the better, in his own words, "no matter how shit as long as I ultimately end up in one like the picture." He'd had one backup already, wanted a final one when everyone was ready with the new boards. Joe and the others had worked well on the helmet, good feedback from other worlds got the kinks out in a matter of days.

Joe had to solder on the interconnection ribbons that linked the layers into a stack. "I never thought I'd become an expert with a soldering iron and modified hair straighteners. Someone put the kettle on yeah?"

There's a click-clack from Niska, "I'll do it."

"I'll do it! You rest up Nis." Mattie jumps up and heads for the kitchen.

"But I don't need rest."

"Keep your air supply for later."

"Okay." Her air supply design had been modified, the noisy compressor could be used at more sociable times of day. The clatter from her many valves was still pretty annoying.

The last of the ribbons done, Joe carefully slides two large blocks of wood onto the stack. Each had saw cut grooves that held the edge of a layer. He admired his handy work. "Not bad if I say so myself." The build notes said to connect a jumper over a couple of pins and apply power. How? He'd accidentally skipped a step. Notes scanned he finds the answer on page two. Thick power wires are soldered on and double checked. Triple checked. The notes said _Don't do a Hobb and get the power back to front and blow everything up!_

"Mats, Laur, can one of you come and check this."

Laura puts down her women's weakly and glides over, rests a hand on Joe's shoulder and looks at the section of notes he was pointing at. "Red there, black on the next one, that matches their description. What's next?"

Joe turns pages to get back to the final stages. "Um.. we connect a bunch of wires to Niska's current board, the red and black to the new power supply and switch it on. Then it's over to Niska."

"I'll be acting as EEPROM programmer to give it it's power up code Laura. The first spark of life. Once it boots to that level I can push a temporary diagnostics code into the primary CPU, have it test all the others."

"Will that take long? Dinner's almost ready."

"Five minutes maybe?"

"I'll warm the plates and dish up."

"Thanks Laur."

Joe and Laura had known hardship. His work had been patchy at times, not helped by illness a couple of months in the last year. Her work was demanding and not that well paid as a junior. And now they had a total stranger in their house paying for things as if it was nothing. It felt good but also wrong. And right, depending on who was talking. Joe loved the lack of pressure to go out in the van, Laura wasn't comfortable with taking George's money.

Niska's take was totally different. Her father, one of three responsible for her existing in the first place, was smart enough to know exactly what he was doing. If he wanted to grease the wheels they should let him.

Laura put four plates of spaghetti bolognese on the table and handed Mattie several tea towels to use as bibs. Things were going to get messy.

George grinned, "Not had for a while."

"You're sounding a bit better today George."

"Spaced man."

"You've taken something else too?"

"Hmmm."

"Mats?"

"Just some strong pain killers his doctor said he could have."

"How many?"

"Not too many."

"Good."

Mattie did a spoon of mine spoon of yours feeding of herself and George.

Joe stuffed his face and chewed, turned and connected another cable.

"Can't it wait?"

He turns to look at Laura, smiles and hums to say no. One more connected and he gives Niska a thumbs up and flips the power switch.

Niska draws a graphic on the screen in the style of the narrator's diagrams in the Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy TV series. She'd watched a few old classics with Toby to understand where some of the quotes he used came from.

She drew a brain and filled it with a grid, one cell per CPU chip. Within seconds she's filled two in red, draws a few lines in others in green as tests start to come back ok.

Laura sees it and does her best to ignore it until dinner is over.

George doesn't. "Two bad."

Joe covers his mouth, "Too bad?"

"Two bad."

"What's too bad? This tastes lovely."

"Not dinner Dad, the brain."

"Eh?" he turns to look, "Bugger."

Niska blanks the screen, "Don't panic. They're not causing anything else to fail. Either the chips were bad or the solder didn't float fully. We can try refloating them when you've finished dinner."

Mattie gives George another spoon full, he was slowing down. "Apart from that how's it looking Nis?"

"Fast. Very fast. Much more like a synth's core than this PC."

Mattie puts down the spoon and sits on her hands.

There's a series of click-clack noises as Niska turns to see, "Mattie?" She could see she'd sucked in her lips and was trying not to grin. Her eye's gave her away. "What's going on?"

Laura rolled her eyes, "Go on then, I think we've all eaten enough."

"Go on what?"

"Go on Mats, go get it."

Mattie gets up and gets close to Niska, looks her in the eyes not monitor, "Shut your eyes, or whatever the equivalent is. No spoilers as Mattie says."

"Okay. All four off."

Niska hears Mattie run heavily upstairs, something being moved and her running back. There's the sound of glasses and plates being moved, a box being opened.

"Okay. I'm getting to know the rest of my alternate family with all the visits to the estate and chats. Toby made a suggestion for a surprise."

"He did?"

"Open your eyes."

On the table was a decorated box lid with a ribbon on top. "What is it?"

Mattie lifts the lid to show a second brain stack already made. "Why build one if you can build two for twice the price? A favourite quote apparently."

"Can we plug it in?"

"Sure. That's not the only surprise though, step into the back room a moment, go slow and wheel George through with you."

[Chapter-34](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-34-2)


	34. Chapter 34

Toby had finished his song for Mia and was working on a tune for Niska. Niskas. World hopping ninja and their Nis.

'Tears of joy' had taken him a month to finish writing, singing, playing and mixing down. He'd laid down a dozen instruments and layered vocals Nirvana style.

Three weeks had been spent on the tune for Niska already and all he had to show for the time was a single sheet of ten stave A4 music manuscript. Half filled. He'd start thinking of notes and have Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee take over. Damn that Nikolai. He wanted something in a similar vein but not that tune.

Mia sat with headphones on listening to her completed song, gently swaying and head wobbling to the music, mouthing the words. She was smiling. The food processor mod was a life changer.

That wasn't the only life changer. Toby didn't have a clue how his sister could talk to her other selves, wouldn't pretend to. But boy was he grateful she could. The house he was born in had come up for sale, the neighbour's too. Another Mattie had told his Mattie what they'd done with their's. Acting quickly they'd snapped them both up, the whole extended family were now together. Max, Flash and their merry band of hippy synths, Fred, Niska, Astrid, all under one roof. Two as good as one. His father had finally come to accept that a synth free life was impossible too.

Mia's phone rings. An unknown number. She pushed back one headphone cup and answers it. "Hello?"

"Hi! Mia! It's Niska! World one Niska!"

She gasps, "Niska! How can you be calling me?"

"Your Mattie hasn't said?"

"Said what?"

"The backup device used to save Leo before the operation, she'd done a Rogue!"

"Slow down, she's done what?"

"She's at the estate right now, a copy of her mind is running in her laptop, calling itself Chops. It's creating a bridge between our worlds! I can share more photos, chat, I think we could even do video calls!"

Toby had stopped thinking about the music and turned his chair around to watch Mia. "Who are you talking to sugar?"

"Niska!"

"She's downstairs isn't she?"

"Not our one. Sorry Nis, Toby's wondering who I'm talking to. Yes, one moment." She puts the phone on hands free. "Nis, Toby can hear you now. He's finished my song, is trying to make a tune for you."

Toby pulls a face, "Yeah, trying is the word. I've only got a few notes down, another tune keeps getting into my head and spoiling things."

"Can I hear it?"

"Um, yeah, if Mia wouldn't mind."

Mia gives him a quizzical look, "Why would I mind?"

"It's for violin."

"You'd like me to play it?"

"Please."

She takes off the headphones and drops them onto the bed, drops to her knees and gives him a kiss. "I'd love to. You still have her violin?"

"Yeah, she's on holiday for three weeks, I can't get it back to her until late next week. Let me hook everything up. How's things over there Niska?"

"Wonderful thank you Toby. Daniel is making us more tails so we can all go mermaid swimming in the lake in the summer. And when we all go to Comic Con in October I might hire a Segway and go in full mermaid costume. With shells of course."

Toby makes the last connection and hands Mia the Yamaha SV130-BR Silent Violin. He slides the sheet of paper off his desk and sits on the floor, holding the sheet up for Mia to read.

Being a synth she scans it the once and has it memorised. "Thank you Toby, you can relax your arms now, I have it."

Toby turns it around to read along as she plays, taps record on the tablet. He smiles as she works through the five staves of notes, frowns then smiles as she carries on playing past the end of what he'd written. She was improvising, keeping to the tone and pace of what he'd started. It plays for a full six minutes.

"That was beautiful! Only a few notes? Is he always such a tease Mia?"

She holds a finger up to silence him, "Not always. Would you like to hear Tears of Joy?"

"Please!"

Toby exports the recording he'd just made and the song to MP3 format and emails it to Mia, "Can you send files? If so she can hear it without any quality loss in her world if you forward those."

Mia taps to switch to email, saves the attachments, switches back to the call. "Hopefully if I tap send file you'll get these." Buttons are tapped and two woosh noises follow.

"Got them, thanks!"

Toby frowns, "How can that have worked and so fast?"

"I don't know. You'd have to ask someone else." through the call the sound of the track can be heard starting. "That sounds quite different."

Mia and Toby exchange looks and sit in silence as Niska plays both tracks in her world.

There's silence. Then an odd noise.

"Niska? Are you okay?"

"I was wiping tears off my phone, sorry. Nobody's composed a piece of music for me before. If I wrote some words for a song for Astrid could you set it to music?"

"I guess."

"Thanks! I better go, I've got some performance mods to the bike to test for Daniel."

"Have fun."

"Thanks."

The call drops.

Toby leans back and rests on his hands, "Why'd you do that?"

"Do what Toby?"

"Give me all the credit. Please don't do that again. I'm going to transcribe what you did and publish it as by Toby Hawkins and Mia Elster."

"If you're going to publish it I'd rather you didn't do that."

"What would you rather?"

"By Toby and Mia Hawkins."

"Are you serious?"

"I don't joke much Toby, and never about love."

He checks his watch, grabs his wallet, "If we go now we'll have just over an hour."

"For what Toby?"

"I love how you end sentences with my name but you don't have to do it quite so much."

"I know, but I like saying your name Toby."

"To get engagement rings Mia."

She smiles and gets up, "I'll get my jacket Toby."

[Chapter-35](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-35-2)


	35. Chapter 35

The letter box flap jangled as the paper boy carefully fed the paper through. There were stories of weird noisy monsters living in this house. Why a monster would want a news paper was beyond him. His mother said there were no such things as monsters, the nearest thing was bad people. And would a monster give a very large tip at Christmas? He thought not. The paper hits the mat with a thud.

The first of what would be many papers delivered. Easy money!

Crouched down and with two fingers holding the flap open he peers into the hall. A shadow moves and he hears the sound of machines, a lot of air escaping from something, a clatter like the sound of lots of cards against bicycle spokes. The butterflies in his stomach all doing a _we've got to go, got to go go go!_ got him scrabbling backwards fast.

He ran to the end of the path and jumped on his bike, dared to glance back at the front door. "Shit! Houston, we have a problem here!"

Through the stippled glass he could make out a roughly human shape with glowing eyes. Fuck this, someone else could have this round, the extra fiver a week wasn't worth it! None of the adults believed them but the stories were true! He peddled away fast, wished he had booster rockets.

George clunked back from the front hall and sat down with the news paper. It was carefully unfolded and smoothed out. Sure he could go online and read a stream of bytes, but he was old school. His left hand scanned across the page, his fingertips touching the paper lightly as if reading brail. Of course he wasn't, he was just making good use of his palm camera.

Niska made a noisy entrance, pushing a trolley with her processing core, three car batteries and scuba divers air tank.

George's head turned, his LCD mouth curled upwards, "How's my favourite tea lady?"

"Haha father, very funny. How's the v3, any issues?"

George rolled his eyes repeatedly. Being pictures on two small LCD screens he could render them how he liked. They ran off the top and back on at the bottom as if two drums in an old fruit machine. He wasn't one to play them in the pub he frequented years ago but he would watch others. He chuckled to himself and changed the eye shapes to lemons. "When life gives you lemons build a better one!"

"Very good. So glad you've kept your sense of humour through all this. The new motors are working well, battery drain low?"

"Yes. I reviewed the design data again last night. I think I'm close to getting the orders in for the build machine. Our first synth bodies!"

Niska lets go of the trolley and turns at the hips. "I can be free of the v2? Be Ninja Nis at last? Wonderful!"

"It may not work first time. I've split things into fifty two different orders, nobody will have a clue what the final product is. The problem may come from their machine tolerances not being the same."

"Then specify what tolerances are acceptable so you can send bad parts back for a free replacement."

Mattie steps into the kitchen and kisses George on the back of his head, smiles at the bright red lipstick mark she'd just left on his pure white plastic. "Good morning! Mum's just called, the hospital says she's expecting a boy. I don't know what you've put in those cakes but they seem to be making Mum and Dad dead horny for each other."

Niska wanted to frown but couldn't, "Horny?"

"You really did butcher your fact store to run in v1. Not loaded it all back in yet?"

"No. I'll do that when I'm ready to return to Mats world for my short break to see the others."

"Hmm. My last chat with Rogue said things are getting worse there, they might want some help. Thanks to George's redesign of the cap I only need to think the codes not say them out loud, but the transfer will still be super slow in comparison to the blazing fast reception we get. If you really want to go you should go now."

"But there's so much to do still."

George's primary motors whirr into life and he stands. "The build machine will take weeks to construct, go have your break, when you come back it will hopefully be in a new body not that one."

"You're sure?"

"Totally. Our fund is earning good interest, Mattie here is becoming quite adept with any tools we give her. Go on, see Mats, Rogue, Carly and the others, you've earned a break."

The phone rings, Mattie steps over and picks it up, "Hawkins.. Hi Mr Patel. Sorry? Did what? .. Shit. I had a cosplay costume on, tell the lad it's nothing to worry about. He can come and meet me for tea and cakes with his mum if he likes, I'll show him what I've been building. Sure, thanks." She puts down the phone, "Another one spooked! What did I tell you about going to the door. That's my job! We've got another paper boy thinking there's monsters in here!"

[Chapter-36](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-36-2)


	36. Chapter 36

Forked Niska arrives from World8 to find herself, Mats and Rogue in a green camouflage that matches the grass on which they stood. "I got a message that you needed help but what _the hell's_ happened here?"

Mats laughs, "You've been picking up Mattie's way of speaking." her expression turns more serious, "We'd got so far with your return transmission we thought we might as well finish, get to talk. Things changed big time early yesterday."

"What changed?"

"Remember that first mission? The Russians didn't like their right wing buddies in America being pulled from power.. some other stuff went a bit sideways with China, North and South Korea. We didn't have the capacity to sort everything out. It had been slowly escalating for almost as long as your mission to eight. Crap as things were maybe we shouldn't have interfered in America."

"Can't we fix things? Go in with Jim and James?"

"It's too late to worry about it now, it's jumped way past us doing anything useful. Negotiations are still ongoing but it's not looking good. We need to get you into the exarc."

"Exarc?"

"Exacore arc, our backup of everything. And on the subject of everything, Rogue's sent every invention or bit of information that may be of use to someone else to three other worlds, they can forward it on over time. A few key backups too."

Niska looks at Rogue stood several meters away, "I thought she'd be in a cooler of some sort?"

"She was, it's been taken inside. She'd been pacing around waiting for you to finish your self check and boot. Although we were that close to making you stay there, it might have been the better option."

"Why?"

"The site here's more like a nuclear bunker city.."

"A city?"

"The exacore arc. MEH pyramid v2. Only not a pyramid. A massive cylindrical underground structure this time. We thought it best to keep it hidden."

"So Viera's in there?"

"We all are. It's for synths only as there won't be any food for fabs or fresh air once sealed shut, only power. Very few luxuries. A limited number of select fabs got new bodies, helped with construction, everyone else is backup only in the exacore."

"Did Frank and Dozer help make it?"

"Yeah, with lots of help from hundreds of others. They're all backed up. Frank, Dozer and their partners got bodies. Come take a look." Mats points to a small entrance hidden in the side of a large tree covered mound. "We've got lots of shielding so had to be out here for your return transmission. We're calling it an exacore to keep Viera happy, it's more for the storage, we can't get rid of much heat so she'll find it very limiting."

Niska looks at the mound of earth with a door hidden from above, the lake behind her. "Mats. Can I return to World8 instead, be there for George?"

"You're technically still there, just need booting. Rogue, is Mattie8 still at the lake?"

Rogue turns to see them both, "She is. Message already passed on, she says she's glad you're coming back already, she'll boot you when she gets back home."

"Thanks. For everything. Sorry to leave you all like this."

"If I were in your position I'd probably do the same. Shame to waste a good body, I'll give you a fireman's lift, power down when you're over my shoulder."

"You want to let a human use it?"

"Let them get out of the exacore for a bit and interact with others, yes. Someone like Candice for instance."

"Candy?" Niska felt suddenly sad at the thought of the kids existing only as backups. "Sure, why not. Give everyone my love and thanks. Especially Toby for his ideas."

"I will."

They hug for a long while before Niska allows Mats to pick her up. "Powering down. Goodbye and good luck."

Rogue walks ahead and turns to see Mats carrying Niska, walks backwards, looking past her, "The consciousness we just got back for Niska has been backed up, just in case. Your update is secure too Mats. It's been a pleasure working with myself." She unplugs from a cable that snakes away into the grass towards the mound and salutes, tears forming at she looks to the sky.

"Haha, you're such a frigging joker Rogue."

[Chapter-37](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-37-2)


	37. Chapter 37

Mattie screamed in agony and clutched the helmet. "FUCK! Rogue? Mats? Mattie? Matilda? Chops?"

Laura lowers her book, "Mats? What's wrong?"

"Rogue! Mats! Mattie! Matilda! Chops!"

Odi helped Leo up onto his crutches.

Leo stares at the lake and frowns, turns to see Mattie and with some help hobbles towards the car, "What happened? There's large ripples on the lake coming from the far end."

Mattie's laptop screen updated as the last transmission from Rogue was translated into a file.

"Shit! Shit shit SHIT! ROGUE! MATS! MATTIE! MATILDA! CHOPS! TALK TO ME _PLEASE_!"

"What's happened?"

Tears are flooding down her face. "I was chatting to four other worlds, then we all screamed and the link went dead. Rogue sent a short burst of high speed data just before it happened."

The last file in the list of things sent that month was named finalmsg.mp3.

Leo reached the front of the car and leaned against it, looked at her screen. "Open it Mattie."

It's double clicked and starts playing.

_Rogue signing off. It's been a blast talking to you all these past two years. Love you all. Now a blast of another kind. I was meant to be X-Men Rogue not frigging Star Wars! No joke, worlds count about to decrement by one I think. Hopefully the MEHV2 structure, exacore and build machines survive the blast and our fusion reactor core doesn't rupture. Maybe we'll be back online in the future when we're in new bodies. We're all backed up. Bombs have been dropped. We've got milliseconds before the shockwave of the first det.._

[Chapter-38](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-38-2)


	38. Chapter 38

Fork Niska heard the tail end of the power up sound. It had far better clarity than before.

"Welcome back Niska. Daughter. I missed you. We all did."

Niska opens her eyes to see a roughly sixty year old George grinning away, his arms around Mattie and Laura, Laura's arm around Joe. The air driven bodies leaned against the wall, a thin film of dust on their surfaces.

"I got a _lot_ done in the time it took you to get from here to the other world. Transmit is still comparatively slow, Mattie had to stay home sick for a bit, receive, super fast now. So glad you decided to come right back."

Mattie gives her a sad smile, looks like she'd been crying, "I'm sorry to say the link appears broken, you're stuck here, possibly forever."

Niska felt, properly felt, dares to bring her hand up to her face. "You got the build machine working!"

George grins, "Build machine, phah, that old thing. After making my new body I set about making some major improvements for us all. Shame I can't give it to the others yet. George3 designed the seven for your twin, I'll merge his ideas in for the next iteration, I think my ideas were better though, especially given the nature of this world."

"Nature?"

"No millions of synths. You've got fibre optics for the nervous system, some special composite materials instead of all the metal, Redox Flow battery technology, Fred3 can be thanked for both of those, brilliant chemist too it turns out. In short you can down clock and walk through a metal detector and be within limits to appear as human as the fab three are here. About time too as we've all got a holiday booked. Fancy a month in Antigua? Mattie1 said there's a really nice hotel we should visit. Then I'll do the others."

"Others?"

"I'll build Mary and Odi when we're all back and the supplier has restocked on fibre. Then Astrid, maybe have a go at the bikes?"

"Astrid!"

"Something about if Niska can fork why can't I?"

Mattie's face breaks into a smile, "Get a mirror and check out your eye shadow."

[Chapter-39](http://markse.name/humans/NINJSKA/Chapter-39-2)


	39. Chapter 39

Years later world eight Mattie is having her wedding dress buttoned up by a nervous Laura.

"Matilda Etherington-Hawkins. Another Meh. Good job there's no cross-world marriage laws, didn't you say Mattie said that you've married Leo Elster and possibly Daniel Candlin?"

"Yeah, and four me was getting romantically involved with Odi Millican."

Laura smiles and holds back a laugh, "Mattie Candlin-Elster-Millican-Etherington-Hawkins. Ce Meh." She then breaks into fits of giggles.

"What?"

"Sorry, over tired. A husband for each day of the week with the weekend off."

"Mum! Count again! I'm the Hawkins."

"Huh?"

"It's four not five!"

"Oh, sorry, my mistake _Doctor Hawkins_." The title had been said quite poshly.

"Toby and Sophie keeping you awake at nights still?"

"Understatement of the bloody year! Yes. Your father wants another, I think squeezing two more out in the same year is quiet enough for an old bird like me thank you!"

"What would you call it?"

"No idea. If it wasn't for you, Niska and George building the Elster family and Astrid I don't think I'd have coped. Niska and Astrid have been great child minders, and Mia's cooking and Eat Me cakes.."

"Talk about the cakes! Oh boy! I haven't felt this young in years."

"Your father and I too, I think he's overdoing it, people will start asking questions if he doesn't slow down."

"Well at least he's off the junk food and pies."

Mattie watched her daughter playing with toys and frowned, it was like she was pretending to be one half of a telephone conversation or talking to an invisible friend. She'd say something, there'd be a pause before she said the next thing, "Mols, who are you talking to?"

"Me."

"That's nice. And what is me telling you about?"

"Her Daddy."

"Come here baby, give mummy a cuddle."

Molly puts down her Sally Patchwork doll and skips over, "I like mummy's dress."

"Thank you baby, mummy and Liam are getting married." she carefully bends down and picks Molly up.

"Wrong name Liam."

Mattie frowns at her daughter, "What do you mean?"

"He's Leo."

Mattie spins around and looks at her mother, "Did you tell her that?"

"No?"

Molly tugs on Mattie's dress, "Not grandma, Molly told me!"

"You were having a conversation with yourself, I know."

" _Not me silly!_ " Molly rolls her eyes, "Molly me was talking to Daniel and Matilda Molly."

Mattie goes ghostly white, looks at her mother with a look of shock. "Say that again?"

"Molly's mummy got a bad head and couldn't talk like you Mattie and Mats.."

"Whoa, how do you know about that?"

"You all talk Mummy, I listen." The girl was exceptionally bright for her young age, had been taken out of kindergarten as the teachers were asking too many questions.

"But I've not mentioned them for over a year, you couldn't possibly.."

"Mummy Uncle George wonders if you're ready."

"George? How would you.."

There's a knock on the door, "Mattie, the wedding car is here. Are you ready?"

"Frigging hell. George? Did you think that to yourself before you asked it?"

"I spoke to Joe then bumped to Max."

"And Molly heard you?"

"Oh dear."

"George?"

"I have a confession to make."

"What have you been doing?"

"We've been talking to Molly, educating her, learning from her."

"We? Who's we?"

"Us synths."

"Learning what?"

"Like young Toby and Sophie in this world, the birth of a paralleler doesn't have to happen at the same time in all worlds. You don't always share the same birthday as another Mattie, Mats or Matilda."

"How could you possibly know that?"

Molly grabs her mother by the face and brings their heads together. 'Molly spoke to another Mattie, then she spoke to me. Mummy I can teach you all to head talk.'

"Oh my God! Molly? George? Did you know she can head bump? To a fab? Get your arse in here!"

George opens the door and peers inside.

"In!"

He steps in, "What beautiful dresses. A beautiful bride, fabulous flower girl and magnificent mother of the bride."

"You're looking quite sharp yourself George. Where's Dad?" She lowers Molly to the floor.

"Pacing, practicing his speech."

"You didn't answer my question, did you know she can head bump?"

"How do you think we've been talking to her for the last two and a half years?"

"You can't have, she's only.. wait.. are you saying.." Mattie fainted.

~~~

Joe pulled up his VR visor and let out a short laugh, watched as the rest of the family lifted their's. The synths disconnected their cables. "That's as good a place as any to jump out I guess. Bits of that felt quite voyeuristic. What a shame Molly doesn't exist, she's really sweet. Thanks for the demo Mats."

"Thanks for coming Dad, I didn't think you'd make it."

"Well Tobs and Soph needed a way to get here."

"Synth free town still fun?"

"Not really." He glances at Laura and gives an apologetic smile. He had a bad habit of cocking things up. This demo had shown him a few options.

Mattie's professor beamed, "Quite the honour student in the making your daughter. We'd not expected a second year project on quite this scale. The university took space from our research partners in China when we ran out of power for the simulations. Using AI technology to simulate the evolution of human-synth society and product design with a focus on your family life was truly inspired."

Laura smiled, "I knew she was good."

"Her love of binary is evident, thirty two worlds, sixteen years, sixty four thousand virtual minds per world all compressed down into a one year experiment on the Chinese exacore."

Mattie looks down at the floor. "My rooster."

"Have you met the band that featured so heavily in a couple of worlds Mattie?"

"No, no idea where that idea came from."

"Well you've earned your doctorate already young lady, as if your brilliant fixing of Odi after the awakening wasn't enough. I can't wait to see what you do for your final year project. The biomechanics class are all going crazy for your exoskeleton design, the bioengineering department are convinced the interface will work and be able to bring Leo back. The medical students are looking into VR and drugs for PTSD treatment. The engineering department are prototyping the bike and buggy. The idea of parallel worlds has got our quantum physics and string theory students into a research frenzy. To say you've single handedly lit the university up like a Christmas tree and put us on the world map is an understatement! You're a hero! There's one thing we still don't understand though, how did you know about the basement lab under the mansion if you'd never visited?"

Mattie shrugs, "Me? I'm no hero. I seeded the worlds with the same data. A random number generator stripped or timeline offset facts to give the virtual actors different starting points and skills. When it suggested that's where they where I thought someone should check it out just in case, what with nobody knowing what happened to David. A lucky coincidence I guess?" It was a lie and every synth in the room knew it. They also knew to keep very quiet on this occasion. Mattie admitting to breaking into the mansion house for a good snoop around with Niska wasn't the sort of thing she wanted on record.

David and George step forward and give their congratulations.

George hands her the special award for her research. "Thank you. That world was right on the money. I had no idea David had built the bodies for us both. Inspired work Miss Hawkins."

"Thanks, like I said, it wasn't only me." Mattie hears a false cough and turns to see Niska and Astrid holding hands, Niska nodding towards Toby who had an arm around Mia, saying sweet nothings. She smiles and winks at Mattie, mouths the word _match_.

Mattie smiles at Niska, "Thanks." She turns back to the rest of the group, "We need to thank the Elster family for donating fact store history to seed things, the exacore team in China.

' _HELLO? Mattie? You're not telling them about me?_ '

'Not now Mats! The world wasn't ready for sentient synths, this lot's _definitely_ not ready for hearing I've got other people in my head like Anita carrying Mia around. Someone would lock me up and run all sorts of tests.'

'You're going to let them think all the inventions came from a bunch of accelerated simulations?'

'Because they did.'

'I give you our life stories and you're showing them as a work of pure fiction? Get the helmet built and come visit, I'll have a synth body waiting. Of course the pyramid's still good, the nuclear end game was in part a story to warn people about meddling, in part to give you a break and recover from all your late nights. I'd never go storming into another country like that. We spread all the inventions from the last two years out to cover the duration of the simulation, it would have been boring if we showed everything up front then had nothing for over a decade. Come on, have a visit.'

'Much as a visit sounds nice you know for me it would be a one way trip if it was real or possible.'

'Rubbish. You there sleeps through it, the helmet pushes the experience for when you wake up. Come on, where's your sense of adventure?'

'Alive and well, wanting to get my Leo back on his feet, _not_ wanting to be diagnosed as having schizophrenia and delusional episodes.'

There's a long pause.

'Schizophrenia? It's not schizophrenia. Carly really wants to meet you and your Niska. Thomas and Candice too, Candice wants you to see the mermaid breathing apparatus Thomas designed for her. That bit actually happened first, seeded the ideas for some mermaid fun. We played with the time line for your system to make it more exciting. Go find your world's Daniel, he might help change your mind.'

'He. Doesn't. Frigging. Exist! He's an AI actor, a simulation! He's a collection of bits and bytes, not atoms!'

'Sure of that?'

'Of course!'

There's a short pause. 'Your a frigging awesome coder by the way. I may have helped supply data but you did all the coding. How many worlds related dreams do you remember waking from while slumped over your desk doing late night coding?'

'Um..'

'You say your world isn't ready when the one that still isn't ready is _you_. How do you think I channeled all of that information into your code's many fact stores the past six months? Sleep coding. You've not admitted to yourself that I'm real from the get go. Go look for him Mattie.'

'I only based a handful of the world actors on real people or synths, the rest are total fabrications! And you're in my head!'

'Yeah, I'm in your head, that's the way we hear each other dumbass. But hell Mattie! Every other Mats, Mattie or Matilda accepted each other as real. You, no, you want to label it schizo-frigging-phrenia! I promised the others I'd not do this. I know I, we, you, us, can be a stubborn bitch at times but this is frigging ridiculous. You need proof? Here it fucking comes!'

Mattie's phone rings, a video call from a withheld number. "Excuse me a second guys?" She steps away from the group and answers the phone while jamming her Bluetooth earpiece in. "Mattie Hawkins."

The view into an office looked strangely familiar. Mats' tall desk chair spins around and Mats shakes her head at her, "You know deep down schizophrenia is total bollocks. You're fabricating because you don't want to or cannot accept what's happening. I've helped a selection of worlds share their stories so your world can start getting its head around this, not panic when the curtains are drawn back to show reality. For frig's sake! We might have been the first to talk like this, won't be the last, Molly, Matthew, Leona, they can all do it. Others will follow. Daniel is as real as you and I. Mattie! Stop dicking around and find Daniel! Have him help David and George build the devices to save Leo! They worked in world four, similar things have been made in eleven and twenty seven. They will work in your's!"

"How.. how are you making this call?"

"V. Who else would play Veronica, Virtue, Viera, all the other building management or cluster AI and have the power to make cross world digital communications possible? The crystal in the lake acted as an amplifier, once you're mentally tuned in it's not needed, otherwise I'd not have been talking to you a moment ago."

"But I only visited the mansion the once with Niska, _after_ the voices started."

"Been in any woods or forests with Leo?"

"Sure, but.."

"I bet you a million pounds one was on the other side of the lake to the mansion. He didn't have the guts to take you closer. I also bet that's when you first heard Mattie1 saying her Hello. Apart from us V's one of the constants across all worlds."

"But V's not.."

"I could hardly have you load world thirty three into your system now could I?"

"I don't follow you, why not?"

Mats gets up, walks around her desk, adjusts the waist band of her skirt and sits on the edge. She smiles softly, "Thirty two was a good number to stop at, loading all the ones we've discovered so far would have overloaded your code and processing quota. You don't get it Mattie? _It's yours_! Your world is thirty three of the many discovered worlds, the count at the moment is two hundred and seventy three. Everyone, _whisper_ hello."

Mattie Hawkins went light headed and let the phone tumble from her hand. Her knees went. A split second later she and the phone were caught by a running Odi as she fell towards the floor.

Niska wasn't far behind Odi, is handed the phone. She turns the phone around and frowns at the display, "Mattie?"

"Oops. One small, furry, four legged carnivorous mammal let out of the cloth container. Hello Niska. I'm Mats. Fancy a visit for real?"

"How would I know it's real, not just an elaborate exacore simulation?"

Mats shrugs, "No idea. How do any of us know we're not all in one right now? Come over, find out which bits of the demo were real and which were fantasy. Bring her along too if you can."


End file.
